the little woman and I were on a little winter gettaway last feb, and after searching about a month ahead for places to stay, taking in account proximity to things to see and amenities in the place we wanted to stay, as well being smokers the ease to be able to go out for a cigarrette as we please, we had contacted the best western which has lake veiw rooms and a couple nice suites. the draw back is if we wanted to have a cigarrete we would have to go from the suite down through the lobby and out the door. the days in when we contacted them they have ballconies and the only large luxury suite is on the third floor. I asked the person on the phone if we are allowed to smoke on the balcony, she said yes. later in the conversation I asked again to confirm and she again said yes you can smoke on the balcony just not in the room, and they would ask if we went out for a cigarrette that we close the door so it would not blow inside,,,, no problem I said.
a month later we arrive there and go to our room for hopefully a pleasent 5 day stay, the Suite was excelent , having been remodeled about 6 months before, 2 tvs dvd player, fireplace, 2 person jacuzzie, large bath with full body shower, kitchenette with sitting area seperate from bedroom, its a 300+a night room. respecting that its a non smoking room we went out on the balcony for a cigarete and closed the door, dam cold thing to do in febuary with temps hovering around -10 not including windchill up on third floor.
I am assuming that a cleaning lady saw a couple unopened cigarete packs on the kitchenette counter. when we came in from touring around there was a note stating that we can't smoke in that room and we will be charged a cleaning fee if we continued. I went to the front desk and showed the note and said we were not smoking in the room, just on the balcony like we were told we could, the desk person said ok no problem.
the next day we got a call asking if we were smoking in the room stating that the cleaning person could smell smoke in the room and found a tin can we were using as an ashtray outside on the balcony. I went to the the desk and proceeded to explain that we were told by the sales person that we could smoke on the balcony, and thats all we have been doing, just a note we are not hard core smokers, one maybe once an hour or so, the person said that the cleaning person said she could clearly smell cigarette smoke in the room, I said the only thing I could think of is perhaps she could smell it on our dirty clothes which we had in a basket. I invited her to come to the room almost insisting that she check it out for herself. she declined and said that we really should not even be smoking on the balcony but since we were told we could that its ok. I then asked her for a garbage bag, she asked why, I responded with so I can put our dirty clothes in it so the smoke smell which is probley where the cleaning lady smelt it will be contained.
I then started to wonder if the cleaning staff were trying to cause a headache for us as we had not yet left a tip for them, we were getting less of the daily freebees like coffee for the coffee maker and creamers and sugar, other little things, I allways tip at the end of a stay as the girls rotae rooms and if I based a tip on the previous days cleaning a differnt person would be picking it up. anyways we eneded up staying an extra day as there was a blizzard and the hwy was closed for a day and a half, I was asked again by the front desk if we were smoking in the room I said no again.
when we left I gave an envelope with 60 dollars in it explaning it was a tip to be split among the cleaning ladies as to who did our room 10 dollars for each time, the front desk promised they would get it. hope they felt like s**t after that, for trying to cause problems for us.
All in all what this did was added some stress to our trip that we could possibly get hit with a 500 dollar cleaning fee at the whim of someone who thinks they smell ciggarete smoke, or can smell it faintly on our clothing, and the harassment of being accused several times of doing something we were not was annoying to say the least.
Traveler
fonthill, Ontario
Canada