OMAAT reader Samuel shared a wild story with me, whereby he found five discarded nitrous gas canisters hidden in his hotel room, reported it to staff, and was then charged 375 ($505) for them to be removed.
Continue reading: Westin Guest Finds Gas Canisters Hidden In Room, Charged $500+ For Removal
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Can somebody explain why it even matters whether he put the gas canisters there or not? What expense is there in removing them? We're just talking about whippets, right? Can't they just throw them out in the trash?
Are we talking about little cartridges used to make seltzer or whipped cream ?
These are laughing gas canisters. Laughing gas is, unfortunately, used as a recreational drug here in Britain. Not too long ago, I went to East London to visit someone after a rugby match, and was gobsmacked by the amount of discarded canisters of laughing gas on the streets.
Now, I don't at all condone the use of it and littering in hotel rooms, but I wonder why the staff didn't just put it in their waste bag?
Bonvoy gonna bonvoy! Not sure why any self respecting traveler still gives Marriott their money. Terrible brand. At least Wyndham, choice don’t pretend to be something they’re not!
@ DanG-DEN -- Sorry, updated the post to add that detail. These were from FastGas, along the lines of what you'll find here:
https://fast-gas.com/
@ Ray -- Interesting. I guess due to the explosives warning, they have to be discarded differently, at least technically?
@ 747-400 -- Apparently they have to be professionally disposed of, or at least that's what the hotel believed. The cost charged reflected what the hotel had to pay for disposal. At least that's the claim.
I once found women's underwear on a desk chair. It was a very large size. Rather than report it, I threw it in the hallway...like a woman was sex crazed and removed clothing before getting into the room
I would have said nothing unless it was a gun or bomb
Last December I found a pre—rolled joint and a lighter in a Radisson Blu. What a great gift. 😉
The guest also should have or could have done more to make sure that this did not backfire on him.
1. Why would he wait until checkout to report this incident to the manger on duty because it should have been done immediately upon discovering them.
2. He should have left it as is and call up the front desk to send someone up preferably from management to see the situation personally.
3. He should have tried to document everything from listing what he found with the time and date and location. He could have backed it up with photographs and videos. Also, if possible he could have recorded the situation if he had called someone from the hotel to the guest room to discuss the matter. Marriott has not been known to be customer friendly at all for a long time already and it is not just specific to any one region but it seems on a much larger scale.
Working at a hotel you don’t want to know what guest brought down to me overnight that they found in their room and ice bucket coffee maker! One of the reason they are gone from rooms no one has time to clean them gross.
I agree with Jojo. I have had a Marriott platinum card more than 30 years but have decided I am going to be done with Marriott, as they refused to extend a couple of certificates following my heart surgery that made me unable to travel. They do not deserve my money.
@ Stanley C -- So I hear you, and I would've probably also gone about documenting this differently. At the same time, this seems like a situation where it's obvious that the guest wasn't at fault.
Think about it, if the goal was actually to lie and he just wanted to dispose of these without paying, why wouldn't be just throw them in a trash bin somewhere, rather than neatly placing them on his bed?
This. The guest foolishly moved the canisters himself at the end of his stay and didn't document their discovery with his phone.
Earlier this year I found a women's underwear hanging on a spinning ceiling fan. I guess housekeeping never looked up.
@Ben totally not saying the guest was wrong but just wondering why he did not document everything and he definitely should have left them as is for the staff to find when he called them and he should have done that immediately. It is like what you have written about before when you discovered things not working in the room you told front desk straight away. This is also something that hotels remind guests what to do on TA which is let the hotel staff know about an issue as soon as possible rather than at check out or posting it on TA or on the hotel survey after the stay.
I think the lesson is to use your ubiquitous phone camera to document, and do not touch anything you find. I once checked into a room with an ozone machine in use. That should have tipped me off that housekeeping was cleaning the room from smoke. I didn't document and didn't say anything. The hotel tried to charge me a cleaning fee insisting I smoked in the room.
I learned to document if I find anything, and to immediately go down to the lobby and insist on a room change if I ever smell evidence of smoking in the room.
Hotels just want someone to pay for it and they don't seem to care whether the customer responsible for the mess is the one that is charged. Hindsight is 20/20 but the guest should not have touched them and instead photographed them and insisted housekeeping remove them from their initial hiding spot.
“You’re $500 resort fee includes:
Wifi
Half off kids breakfast
Removal of gas canisters”
Hotel applying an over-abundance of caution there.
If not empty and put in a fire they would explode, but that's true of air-freshener or deodorant cans too.
The chance of these ones being not empty is very low.
I would regard them as an asset - scrap steel.
I suggest that he also sends the hotel an invoice for say $100 for time spent dealing with their ridiculous claim.
Invoices go to Accounts Payable, who tend to escalate them to someone sane.
When I'm paying to rent a hotel room, why do I want to lose some of the quite enjoyment of that time to staff cleaning up someone else's mess?
That's why I often only mention issues at check-out.
So management can fix E.g. the not-properly-working plug before the next guest arrives.
If I found what looked like drugs, or hazardous waste, I would ask to be moved to a different room.
These cannisters I would not have considered hazardous waste - I wonder whether they really pay GBP75 for removal of the ones that their kitchen uses?
Not clear whether Samuel is from London/UK or not.
If not, consider telling Marriott management that if they don't see sense immediately, he will mention to Metro/ City AM/Evening Standard - the sort of story they would love.
Actually, they may well pick it up from this post.
It’s this type of response by companies that lead honest people, to ignore things and not report them.
They have security cameras and can check. He can make a subject access request for all the cctv footage during his stay.
Of course he brought the canisters into the hotel. lol
He can also dispute the charge with bank.
If they are the standard 8 to 8.4 gram containers they are completely recyclable and can be recycled with general scrap metal, though due to being compressed gas cannot be taken on flights.
Larger ones can be opened/closed and just refilled.
They are commonly used in cafes and restaurants for whipping goods, making fresh whipped creams, hollandaise sauce (that sauce is fantastic), infusing flavors into cocktails and more.
I keep a box of them and return to manufacturer to avoid waste.
That is epic. Bartenders and chefs will love this. (the mini 8 grams are a tad annoying)
I agree, take a picture. We failed to for the weekend rental from a popularwebsite. There was hair in the bathroom and a whole ball of hair left behind on the carpet of the second bedroom. Dust on TV table and cooking grease on stove. Barely any furniture in the bedrooms. We were left wondering if under such circumstances if the bedding had been washed. BTW this property was in Irvine, CA. We felt cheated!
I think the message is "take a photo"! In this case it's obviously a cover-up of sloppy housekeeping that's badly supervised, and one wonders exactly how clean the rooms at the Westin London City really are. Judging by this report, I'll wager they're filthy.
He selected the best option, option five. Have a popular blogger with great SEO publish a blog post that will most certainly come up whenever anybody searches for the property on Google.
If he disputes the credit card charge, his Bonvoy account will be automatically locked, and then may be fully closed with all reservations cancelled and points forfeited. This is standard procedure at Bonvoy for any charge backs, justified or not.
If this is in fact standard procedure, the company should be sued, how is it possible to do this, it would be a form of serious censorship for the customer!
Well, my room last week was very clean and the hotel fantastic. Can't complain about one thing.
It's perfect for the Daily Mail, I'm sure they could find a way to pin it on Muslims.
How lame are whip-its, though? Sad to hear that's big east of Bow's bells. I remember when it was just good old glue.
Just charge back the transaction via the card issuer. Either the entire transaction or the extra charge.
If that doesn't work, the guest could make a claim via the UK Small Claims Court - on the assumption that the hotel operator will settle before it actually goes to court.
Heavenly bedding! Well, they used to be good. I stayed at the one in Vegas several times over the years pre-Covid - half a block off the Strip, often cheaper rates than comparable Strip hotels, no casino so the property was calmer, and the heavenly bedding. But haven't been there in some years.
LOL ..
Your anecdote made my day ! And your kind generosity in 'disposing' of the 'unmentionables' most certainly fed the lurid imaginations of other guests ! ... But who's to say that if you didn't disclose these cartridges, that Westin would incorrectly come after you & bill you the disposal fee and/or worse ?
Maybe it was that same, shameful pair that derek found in his room ! .. Sorta like the 'hot potato' making it's way throughout the hotel ... lol... Just the visual of the garment circling endlessly on the ceiling fan is hilarious !
I certainly can't top either of these experiences.... lol
I just left a review on google for the hotel calling the manager out
i am sure they are going to regret their decision shortly
Absolutely contest it via the credit card. That always gets the offender on their heels and the cc companies heavily favor consumers.
All he had to do was to report an unauthorized fraudulent charge on his credit card to the issuing bank, hence sparking an investigation.
I don't know why, but for a long time in Asia, every time I would check out of a hotel they would say I had taken stuff from the mini bar and every time I would say...well, I didn't. Because I hadn't. Because I have literally never eaten something from a mini bar in my life. I do not know if it was housekeeping playing games or a previous guest they didn't notice, but they never actually charged me. But they sure wanted to charge someone. I mentioned it after like the fifth time in Bangkok and the guy looked at me like he was about to call the police about my suspicious behavior!
I do wonder if he has any status and he has tried taking it to corporate. I have had quite good luck doing this when hotels have overcharged me/not given me my nights, etc. I can't speak for every experience, but I've better luck with Bonvoy than IHG for sure. Sigh.
I know the Westin Vegas well and while it is quiet there is most definitely a casino inside… It’s also ancient and needs to be completely gutted and rebuilt. The Miami Westin gave me a horrible rash on one side while I was sleeping a few years back and completely refused to do anything about it. I had to be hospitalized and even getting a dismissive response from the manager afterward was an ordeal. Westin as a brand has fallen so far over the past 20 years, I pretty much avoid Marriott properties in general now just like I avoid American Airlines.
Once the canister is empty, it can be thrown in the trash or recycled. Would you call a special disposal team for a can of whipped cream or deodorant that was left behind? No, you would toss them in the rubbish bin. That is what the hotel should have done. The manager was in idiot.
Sounds like a small claims type of lawsuit. Also, if this cannot be safely disputed with the credit card company, then the hotel chain and then the travel agency. Last, photos in this case won't help. You cannot prove that you didn't put the canisters there and then took the pics.
Not if paid by cobrand. Amex, Chase, etc will almost always side against the customer if it puts them against one of their brand partners.
We stayed in a specific Westin everytime we visited family. Unfortunately, on one stay I inadvertently dropped an earring behind a dresser. Upon inspecting the location of my earring I did not reach down as there were used needles. I immediately went down to the front desk to tell them. They had the head of house keeping come up with me to the room. They saw and agreed to give the room a through cleaning. We came back to our room later in the day and my earring was sitting on top of the dresser with a written apology. They made it right and no unpcharge occurred.
Thats pointless. You never stayed. Should give the hotel the chance to rectify rather than leave false reviews
Two suggestions. One for the future. If you find anything strange or troublesome take photos and take contemporaneous notes with time and details. Mention that you have done this in any reports. One for the past. Escalate the matter to the hotel’s GM or the district GM in parallel with contesting any credit card charges. Somewhere up the food chain you will find someone who believes a well-documented report from a guest. Clearly this situation reflects badly on local hotel management who are not likely to admit not checking rooms. Most of us know thorough housekeeping is a challenge these days.
This is a public safety issue. File a complaint with the city fire department and the building and safety department. They can conduct a thorough inspection of every single room in the hotel. Make it a news media event.
He should contact the hotel general manager, whom I am sure would gladly refund the money and give the staff that made this stupid decision a good talking to.
It's one thing for the hotel to make excuses for its oversight, but trying to make the guest pay through the nose (for something not just not the guest's fault, but specifically the hotel's fault) makes it very obvious that Westin London City doesn't deserve anybody's business.
My thought is that disposal method depends on what specific gas the canisters contained. I know this happened in the UK, but here in the US, those canisters likely could have been classified as a dangerous good or hazardous waste, which require very specific disposal/destruction methods. If the contents were potentially flammable/explosive/oxidizer, those would NOT go into the regular trash due to the potential for fire or explosion. The amount of regulations regarding chemicals/gasses/industrial fluid is incredible, so the hotel likely had no recourse other than to have a specialized company dispose of the canisters.
Now, the stupidity of the hotel management in charging the guest for the fees is another story, especially since we all know that the housekeeping staff never cleans behind the refrigerators, microwaves, etc.(this usually only happens when they refresh the room with new/updated accommodations), and I can guarantee they're not looking behind the headboards, either. Their tasks are much more perfunctory than what the hotel is claiming that they "inspect" behind every guest.