MARIETTA, Ga. — A pregnant woman says she was charged a $300 fine because a smoke sensor in her Hilton hotel room in metro Atlanta registered her as smoking.
“I am now almost 16 weeks pregnant with twins, and I’m a non-smoker already, but I 100% would never smoke during a pregnancy,” Jennifer Chandik told Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray.
The Philadelphia woman was staying at the Hilton Marietta Conference Center and Hotel earlier this month for work when the incident occurred, but she is not alone.
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“I’ve never smoked a cigarette in my life,” Dakota Busch said.
The Tampa resident was staying at the Marietta Hilton for a wedding and noticed the charge on her credit card after returning home.
“At first, I didn’t know what the charge was for. We were barely in the room during the wedding, let alone damaging it,” Busch said.
Both women say when they questioned the charges added to their credit cards after they checked out of the Marietta Hilton, they were sent smoke incident reports from sensors in their rooms as evidence.
The smoke reports have a graph that shows spikes of smoke at specific times of day.
In Chandik’s case, the smoke incident was recorded at 7:07 a.m., when she was getting ready for work and using her Dyson Airwrap hair dryer.
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“I started my hair at 7:05, the sensor went off at 7:07 and I was out of the room by 7:20,” Chandik said.
“I’m not a smoker. There’s no other evidence. I’m pregnant. I was using a Dyson Airwrap. It causes particulate matter to go up,” she continued.
Busch also knows exactly what she was doing with the smoking sensor registered in her room, steaming her dress for the wedding.
“It was only for a 20-minute period. And it was the exact time period that I was steaming the dress,” Busch said.
Amy Gregory, PhD, spent two decades as a lodging executive and now teaches hospitality at the University of Central Florida.
“The business of hospitality is to make sure that the guests are satisfied, and if there is an issue, that that issue gets remedied,” Gregory said.
But both customers say they got nowhere disputing the charges with the brand, Hilton, or with Remington Hotels, the owner of the property.
“Whether it’s $5, $200, $300, you should never have to pay a fee for something that you didn’t do,” Busch said.
But when she disputed the charge with her credit card company, they sided with the hotel after it provided the credit card company the same smoke report it sent her.
“At the end of the day, it’s really hard for people to fight this. They make it almost impossible,” Busch said.
Channel 2 Action News reached out to the property itself, to Hilton Hotels and to Remington Hotels.
“Hilton Atlanta/Marietta Hotel & Conference Center is an independently owned and operated property, and I cannot speak on the hotel’s behalf,” a Hilton spokesperson said.
A Remington spokesperson told Channel 2 Action News, “We’re reaching out to the property and will keep you updated.”
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