Hyatt Guest Smokes, Charged $500, Refuses To Cooperate, Demands Apology

I’m sympathetic to the unique challenges that solo female travelers have, though I’m not sure what exactly to make of this complaint…

A Hyatt Regency guest’s smoking confrontation

Twitter/X user @bretonlane tagged me in a complaint she has about a recent Hyatt stay (so I assume she is looking for people to amplify her story, and/or share their take). Here’s her series of social media posts:

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Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach: I was a 41-year-old woman traveling alone. I smoked one cigarette on the balcony. 30 min later: LOUD banging on my door repeatedly — no ID, no courtesy call. I froze in fear. Then the phone rang: “OPEN THE DOOR NOW. SECURITY IS THERE.”

I said I wouldn’t open the door. The man yelled at me, accused me of smoking, threatened a $500 fine. I said I understood and wouldn’t do it again. No one warned me at check-in. I didn’t see it listed in the app when booked. I went to bed, shaken and humiliated.

I booked a new flight early the next morning — still afraid. I cut the trip a day early. Later, I was charged the full $500. That night, I called security about items I left behind. They said the room hadn’t been cleaned. But someone had already gone in to take photos?

So someone entered my room — not to clean, just to search and penalize me. No notice. No cleaning crew. That’s a privacy violation. No apology. Just cold, robotic emails and a charge. I’ve stayed at this hotel for over 20 years — including my wedding night. I left this time feeling unsafe, dismissed, and completely disrespected. Women deserve better when traveling alone.

I spoke and emailed with [name] director of rooms to try to resolve the issues and get some assurance security would rethink their actions and he abrasively shut me down about me being treated poorly both times and only focused on the fact that the fine stood.

Hyatt I have dm’d you I’ve also repeatedly tried to resolve or at least get an apology for the way I was treated with [name] (director of rooms) at the Hyatt Huntington Beach with no avail.

What can we really make of this complaint?

I’ve gotta be honest, I’ve read this complaint about five times now, and I’m struggling a bit. For what it’s worth, the hotel’s website and app clearly disclose that the property is smoke free, and that a $500 fee could be applied if people violate that rule (not seeing it isn’t really an excuse, since it’s there):

Please note that our entire resort is a smoke- and vape-free environment, including your room and balcony or terrace. Smoking and vaping are only permitted in designated smoking areas outside the resort perimeter. In the event it is determined that smoking or vaping has taken place inside a room, a smoking fee of $500 will be placed on your folio at management’s discretion.

With that in mind, I can appreciate that if someone just knocks on your door without identifying themselves, you might not want to open the door, since concerns over security in hotels are legitimate. But even after she received a call confirming it was security, she refused to open the door, and instead, went to bed “shaken and humiliated.” If she was worried about the authenticity of that call, she could also dial the front desk to confirm that this is legitimate.

Interestingly, it sounds like at first, the hotel was only threatening a $500 fine, because as the terms even say, that fee can be placed on the folio at management’s discretion. But as you might expect, if a guest is uncooperative, that will likely trigger them to charge that fee.

But instead of cooperating, she checked out the following morning, and then she ended up leaving items behind in the room. Clearly they entered her room to take pictures, presumably to prove that she smoked (in case she otherwise tried to deny it, which I imagine is common among guests who smoke). But she feels that them entering the room is a privacy violation, after she checked out?

When you stay at a hotel, you’re ultimately a guest, and management can remove you from the property if you violate rules. While it would’ve been an overkill, the hotel would absolutely be within their rights to call the police and trespass a guest if they refuse to open the door when security shows up for a rule violation.

It seems like this could’ve largely been avoided if she was just more cooperative and apologetic, rather than somehow making this the hotel’s fault. But instead she’s demanding reassurance from the hotel that they change their behavior?

Last but not least, as someone who has grown up in a family of smokers, I’m just a little bit skeptical of the claim of having just smoked a single cigarette on the balcony. She claims she didn’t know smoking wasn’t allowed, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t know many cigarette smokers who just have one cigarette per day. But that’s neither here nor there…

Bottom line

A guest staying at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach claims she smoked one cigarette on the balcony, and then had security knocking on her door. Fearing for her safety, she refused to open the door, even after she received a phone call telling her that security was there.

Instead, she checked out early the next morning, and then left some items behind. When she found out hotel staff entered her room after she checked out, she felt her privacy was violated. Now she wants an apology from Hyatt and the hotel.

What do you make of this Hyatt smoking incident?