Damage to hotel room

Frank91

Im just looking for advice regarding additional charges i incurred at an Irish hotel recently for damage in my hotel room.

During my stay I became unwell and was sick in the bathroom of my room. Unfortunately, as I rushed to the toilet the seat was down and I was sick on the lid of the toilet. I proceeded to open the lid of the toilet and continued to be sick. The following morning I was still feeling unwell and, regrettably could not face cleaning the bathroom myself.

I was deeply sorry and embarrassed for the state of the bathroom and that somebody had to clean it after my departure.

I completely understand and accept that an additional cleaning fee is added to a bill in these situations, however, a charge of €500 was taken from my account.
I was shocked at the amount charged as I was only sick in the bathroom and the rest of the room was left in perfect condition.

I contacted the hotel about the charge and they stated that the room could not be used for three days after my departure due to the fact that a cleaning company had to be hired and they don't work at weekends.
Note: I checked in Thursday and checked out Friday midday.

It is right that I incur the cost of the room for the 3 days it was out of use?

Thanks

Tigger

What made you unwell ?

riemann

So you didn't clean up your own vomit?

Fully deserved fine, maybe next time behave like a civilised member of society.

Professor Moriarty

<SNIP>
Perhaps they were concerned about the spread of infection. It sounds extortionate though and I would have thought they should have in-house specialised cleaning for such situations. Actually, as I think about it, they're taking the piss.

Tell me how

Frank91 wrote:

It is right that I incur the cost of the room for the 3 days it was out of use?

It's not ideal but probably fair enough if they only found out at say 14:00 on Friday.

You could offer to pay the cost of the cleaning company. Also, you could ask to see their terms and conditions around such events.

I don't want to be Captain Hindsight as such but if you had told them before you checked out, they might have been more reasonable.

Professor Moriarty

riemann wrote: »

So you didn't clean up your own vomit?

Fully deserved fine, maybe next time behave like a civilised member of society.

TBF, from the OP:

"The following morning I was still feeling unwell and, regrettably could not face cleaning the bathroom myself."

Doesn't sound like someone who didn't give a damn.

Tigger

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

TBF, from the OP:

"The following morning I was still feeling unwell and, regrettably could not face cleaning the bathroom myself."

Doesn't sound like someone who didn't give a damn.

What if there were bottles or cans in the bin would that make a difference

nhunter100

Frank91 wrote:

During my stay I became unwell and was sick in the bathroom of my room. Unfortunately, as I rushed to the toilet the seat was down and I was sick on the lid of the toilet. I proceeded to open the lid of the toilet and continued to be sick. The following morning I was still feeling unwell and, regrettably could not face cleaning the bathroom myself.

So someelse has to deal with your vomit which believe it or not is treated as a biohazard. Are you an adult?

Frank91 wrote:

It is right that I incur the cost of the room for the 3 days it was out of use?

Seems reasonable.

PirateShampoo

You do realise that hotel staff are normal people doing a job just like yourself?

Why did you think it's okay to puke all over the bathroom and just leave it there, the smell must of been horrendous. How would you feel to arrive into work and find someone had puked all over your desk and just left it there for you.

The fine is perfectly justified, think of it as a education in human decency.

quad_red

<SNIP>
Did you seriously walk out leaving vomit all over the bathroom without even mentioning it?

Frank91

Tigger wrote: »

What if there were bottles or cans in the bin would that make a difference

I don't drink so it was nothing to do with alcohol.

nhunter100

Frank91 wrote:

I don't drink so it was nothing to do with alcohol.

That's irrelevant. I worked in hotels years ago. None of the housekeeping staff would clean up vomit. A specialist company dealt with it. You soiled the room and left it in that state on a Friday. Company not available till the Monday to clean same. The room is unavaible for 3 days. In my opinion you for off light at 500 euro. The weekend in any hotel is when rooms are at their most profitable.

I guess if you knew it was going to set you back €500, you could have faced cleaning it up. Seems pretty steep, though.

Milivojevic

No sympathy for you at all. Some poor person, probably on minimum wage, had to clean up your mess. Clean up after yourself, FFS, unwell or not!

Professor Moriarty

Tigger wrote: »

What if there were bottles or cans in the bin would that make a difference

I would say they deserved what they got if they went on the tear, didn't give a sh1t about other people's property and were too hungover to be arsed cleaning their mess. If it was food poisoning, for instance, I would say the 'punishment' was extreme.

nhunter100

Basil3 wrote:

I guess if you knew it was going to set you back €500, you could have faced cleaning it up. Seems pretty steep, though.

3 nights ( the room couldn't be sold) @ possibly100 euro a night, cleaning company 200 euro. Nothing steep.

davo10

People get sick, nobody does it intentionally and to be fair to the op, guests in a hotel usually don't bring cleaning products with them in case they are sick. The only thing that could be used is towels, which no doubt were already used earlier in the episode.

Anyone who has kids knows that they make projectile vomiting an art form. I know that over the years, ours have destroyed their bedrooms and bathrooms. It didn't take us three days to clean it up, it didn't take us three hours.

I think the hotel is being a bit precious, you didn't wreck their room, you were sick. Tell them you want your money back or you are off to the SCC. The occasional sick guest is the price of doing business.

Needs Must

Fully deserved, poor decision making by you really. Learn from it and move on.

infogiver

Frank91 wrote: »

I don't drink so it was nothing to do with alcohol.

They couldn't let the room OP.
I know that you were terribly embarrassed but the adult thing to do was to ring reception after you'd been sick and inform them that you'd been unwell, or even stick your head out the bedroom door and ask the household staff for a big roll of paper and a plastic bag.
To even mop up the worst of it with the paper (even with your foot) and stick it in a bag and take the bag away with you would have been better then to run away.
Did you even open the window?
If you were well enough to get dressed, check out, and leave then you were well enough to do this.

Professor Moriarty

Dunno about what caused the OP to get sick. In my own experience, food poisoning made me so sick and feverish I could barely stand up never mind clean a bathroom or think about the consequences of my illness.

nhunter100

davo10 wrote:

I think the hotel is being a bit precious, you didn't wreck their room, you were sick. Tell them you want your money back or you are off to the SCC. The occasional sick guest is the price of doing business.

Are you aware if you soil a taxi there is a 140 euro charge. The scc won't entertain you. You are renting a room and are expected to leave it in a reasonable condition , a bathroom destroyed in vomit is not reasonable. The OP made no attempt to clean his mess if he did in my experience the hotel would have been more lenient.

Professor Moriarty

infogiver wrote: »

They couldn't let the room OP.
I know that you were terribly embarrassed but the adult thing to do was to ring reception after you'd been sick and inform them that you'd been unwell, or even stick your head out the bedroom door and ask the household staff for a big roll of paper and a plastic bag.
To even mop up the worst of it with the paper (even with your foot) and stick it in a bag and take the bag away with you would have been better then to run away.
Did you even open the window?
If you were well enough to get dressed, check out, and leave then you were well enough to do this.

Good point.

Tell me how

Tigger wrote:

What if there were bottles or cans in the bin would that make a difference

Frank91 wrote:

I don't drink so it was nothing to do with alcohol.

3ft of cord, a syringe, spoon and lighter so perhaps?


In fairness, difficult as it might be to accept/consider, hotel staff are probably quite familiar with cleaning less than perfect facilities after guests have left.

Not saying OP'S behaviour was ideal, just think the hotel could probably have dealt with it better wrt the charge. Probably comes back to their T&C's legally though.

whoopsadoodles

I would say it's reasonable.

As stated above it could not be cleaned by regular hotel cleaning staff as it is potentially infectious bodily fluids, something which regular hotel cleaning staff would not be trained to deal with.

Unfortunate, but no matter how sick I was, unless removed by ambulance or if it happened in an actual hospital (where btw, it's the trained clinical staff that clean up such mess, not the cleaning staff), there is no way I would leave vomit in the bathroom.

Seems a legitimate reason to not use the room for three days.

Now, you could go down the road of asking them to prove that they lost out on income (the hotel would have had to be full) and provide invoices from specialist cleaning company but depends on how far you want to take it.

misstearheus

They want 500quid for cleaning a bit of puke??? Wow. If it was just a bit of puke though I'm wondering why their regular Cleaning-Staff just didn't clean it when they would have been doing the rooms as normal at Check-out time.... If this is real and a true story I do feel for ya O.P. as I suffer with Chronic Nausea myself. But unless there's info missing here or more to the story, I think they should have just cleaned the toilet and put it down to one of these rare things that can't be helped, and just got on with their jobs! They'd have it cleaned probably in the length of time it took to go finding a Duty-Manager and filling out an Incident Report and all that necessary lark lol!

Now, it might be a different story if it was a case that you were a part of a Stag or Hen and ye had been causing trouble all night and trashed the room and this was the last straw! But if it was something genuine that seems like a ridiculous amount of money! If there ever was an issue for Joe Duffy this is it!

infogiver

misstearheus wrote: »

They want 500quid for cleaning a bit of puke??? Wow. If it was just a bit of puke though I'm wondering why their regular Cleaning-Staff just didn't clean it when they would have been doing the rooms as normal at Check-out time.... If this is real and a true story I do feel for ya O.P. as I suffer with Chronic Nausea myself. But unless there's info missing here or more to the story, I think they should have just cleaned the toilet and put it down to one of these rare things that can't be helped, and just got on with their jobs! They'd have it cleaned probably in the length of time it took to go finding a Duty-Manager and filling out an Incident Report and all that necessary lark lol!

Now, it might be a different story if it was a case that you were a part of a Stag or Hen and ye had been causing trouble all night and trashed the room and this was the last straw! But if it was something genuine that seems like a ridiculous amount of money! If there ever was an issue for Joe Duffy this is it!

When you worked at your job in which you regularly cleaned up other people's vomit, did you get paid extra for the vomit cleaning or was it just a flat rate, vomit or not?

CeilingFly

I don't believe the OP. My guess they are just creating a story to get a reaction.

Possibly its the same poster that posted/trolled before about a hotel issue.

Mountainsandh

Ruining a towel or two might have done the trick in no time, and all OP would have had to pay was the cost of the towels, maybe.

I don't understand how anyone can walk away from a place leaving vomit all over a bathroom, I don't even understand how someone could do this at home. Would you have left your own home in that state OP ?

I would understand if OP had been taken away on a stretcher, but like another poster said, if you're able to get dressed, packed, and walk out, then imo you're well enough to mop vomit with a towel and give notice to reception.

I think the fine is deserved. You can choose to behave like that, of course, but if you do, then there is a cost.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

clairek6

I worked in a hotel as a room cleaner for a summer. It was a terrible job where we were paid by the room not by the hour. Some people are animals the way rooms where left. In fairness I never had to deal with puke and don't know the policy there but I feel like my hotel wouldn't be paying a private company to clean it.

nhunter100

Fred Swanson wrote:

So the hotel is now a statutory body that can fine people?

It's not a fine it's a charge for damage and rectifying of same. Hotel totally justified and the OP is lucky he got off so light.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

nhunter100

Fred Swanson wrote:

I would put them to proof of their losses. In a court they could only claim their actual loss not a figure plucked from their arse.

What do you think is the price for a hotel room for 3 weekend nights? The OP doesn't give the location but 300 euro would be an average . A specialist company that deals in bio waste 200 euro would not be an unreasonable price. The OP could head to court and watch his 500 euro bill balloon.

Tell me how

I agree that the OP could (should) have done a lot more. I don't like even leaving hotel rooms with bed clothes on the floor.

But some people are very messy, ever look around a canteen at work or the toilets at work and see how people leave them for cleaners to attend to. There's a reason most toilets have check logs which indicate that they have been checked on an hourly basis because if they didn't they would be a disgrace within a couple of hours.

I think the hotel are probably well used to cleaning vomit and so I think the charge is high in this case if the OP's story is correct as to the extent of the problem.

What tools would they need for cleaning this up from a bathroom that they wouldn't normally have for cleaning the same bathroom?


Again, I think the OP was dismissive in not attempting to either clean it themselves or inform the front desk as early as possible as to the problem.

nhunter100

Fred Swanson wrote:

People keep using the F word. I was putting people straight.

Whatever it's called the result is the same. The OP by his actions is down 500 euro and rightly so.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

nhunter100

Fred Swanson wrote:

I don't believe per another poster that they used any professional cleaner. Hence putting them to proof that they did. Also they would have to prove that they did suffer a loss from the room. They may be routinely under booked and there would be no loss.

What you believe is irrelevant, under booked is also irrelevant. If the room is not available it's a loss and the hotel is right to charge for loss of potential revenue.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Tigger

i thought it was e50 i just realised it was 500
thats taking the piss

dudara

CeilingFly wrote: »

I don't believe the OP. My guess they are just creating a story to get a reaction.

Possibly its the same poster that posted/trolled before about a hotel issue.

Please report any posts of which you are suspicious. Do not take the thread off-topic by posting speculative thoughts

dudara

Dial Hard

Fred Swanson wrote:

All stuff a decent solicitor would trash out in court.

A decent solicitor would also most likely cost the OP significantly more than 500 quid.

Gatling

Tigger wrote: »

i thought it was e50 i just realised it was 500
thats taking the piss

Maybe for cleaning the back seat of a taxi ,but having to close a hotel room for 48-72 hours is perfectly​ justified ,
The stench of vomit would have been all over the room especially been left so long , then the stench of fumes from either bleach or other specialist cleaning products would leave the room unacceptable to be occupied

Atlantic Dawn

Could you not have got sick in the bath/shower area instead? Minging I know but less minging than original course of action.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Gatling wrote: »

Maybe for cleaning the back seat of a taxi ,but having to close a hotel room for 48-72 hours is perfectly​ justified ,
The stench of vomit would have been all over the room especially been left so long , then the stench of fumes from either bleach or other specialist cleaning products would leave the room unacceptable to be occupied

And this was no ordinary clean up, as vomit may have carried one of several transmittable diseases.

AndrewJRenko

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

<SNIP>
Perhaps they were concerned about the spread of infection. It sounds extortionate though and I would have thought they should have in-house specialised cleaning for such situations. Actually, as I think about it, they're taking the piss.

Pun intended, given the context?

1eg0a3xv7b82of

Fred Swanson wrote: »

I don't believe per another poster that they used any professional cleaner. Hence putting them to proof that they did.
Also they would have to prove that they did suffer a loss from the room. They may be routinely under booked and there would be no loss.

All stuff a decent solicitor would trash out in court.

Correct the hotel was fully booked that weekend there was no loss.
Also not only would they need proof of cleaning company invoice they would have to show they made some attempt to get the cheapest quote. If op wants to deny it and used a credit card just contact credit company and say 500 charge is fraud. Deny everything and the credit card company and bank issuer will have to fight your case. If a debit card was used they might enforce a charge back and make hotel prove its case.

AndrewJRenko

OSI wrote: »

What was written in the terms and conditions of the room booking related to cleaning charges?

This is a key question. If this was not highlighted in the Ts & Cs beforehand, the hotel would be on very dodgy ground. It would not be unreasonable to ask for evidence of the change from the external cleaning company either.

Nervous Wreck

Sasha Jealous Snowflake wrote: »

Correct the hotel was fully booked that weekend there was no loss.
Also not only would they need proof of cleaning company invoice they would have to show they made some attempt to get the cheapest quote. If op wants to deny it and used a credit card just contact credit company and say 500 charge is fraud. Deny everything and the credit card company and bank issuer will have to fight your case. If a debit card was used they might enforce a charge back and make hotel prove its case.

Pretty much nothing in this post is accurate.

nhunter100

Sasha Jealous Snowflake wrote:

Correct the hotel was fully booked that weekend there was no loss. Also not only would they need proof of cleaning company invoice they would have to show they made some attempt to get the cheapest quote. If op wants to deny it and used a credit card just contact credit company and say 500 charge is fraud. Deny everything and the credit card company and bank issuer will have to fight your case. If a debit card was used they might enforce a charge back and make hotel prove its case.

So much wring this post. You don't know the hotel was fully booked. Other than the damage the OP did to the room and the cost very little further info. Secondly your are assuming the hotel did none of what you suggested, how do you know.
The hotel has a very easy case to prove, the OP needs to accept responsibility for their actions.

shaunr68

nhunter100 wrote: »

What you believe is irrelevant, under booked is also irrelevant. If the room is not available it's a loss and the hotel is right to charge for loss of potential revenue.

It's very relevant. The hotel are only entitled to claim for their actual loss, not as another poster stated a figure plucked from their arse. What's the limit if they can choose any figure they like? €5000? €50,000? If they can show that they were fully booked and had to turn people away for three nights then fair enough. I too would be contacting the CC company stating that the charge was disputed. I would then ask the hotel to bill me their actual costs with supporting documentation.