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Hyatt Hotels are using algorithmic Rest “smoking detectors”

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Re: Hyatt Hotels are using algorithmic Rest “smoking detectors”

#371

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrryan »

recipe19 wrote: post #259

It reminds me of a hotel I stayed at that had a stocked mini-fridge. Removing any item from the fridge resulted in an automatic, silent charge. Putting it back did not remove the charge. So if you simply took something out to check it in, or if you wanted to chill your own beverage, they counted that as consuming the item. They removed the charges if you checked the bill and objected at checkout. But how many people…

That's pretty standard in American hotels these days though. You don't touch anything you don't intend to pay for. It's to prevent people from drinking the booze and refilling it with water.

There are always signs, but if you goof they'll always take the charge off, but you do have to be upfront about it and tell them before checking out, otherwise you'll be charged.

Re: Hyatt Hotels are using algorithmic Rest “smoking detectors”

#372

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrryan »

satellite2 wrote: post #263
ludicrousdispla wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The last time I walked into a hotel room that smelled like cigarette smoke was in 1998, so I would think this is very uncommon.

Using an ozone generator you can remove all odors in a medium sized room in less than 30min. Only poorly organized cleaning staff would have this issue.

I thought it was a little tougher than that? I know it costs at least a few hundred bucks and takes a day or two to ozone a small apartment, which would roughly line up with the $500 fine this hotel charges.

Re: Hyatt Hotels are using algorithmic Rest “smoking detectors”

#373

Post by northern-lights »

recipe19 wrote: post #259

It reminds me of a hotel I stayed at that had a stocked mini-fridge. Removing any item from the fridge resulted in an automatic, silent charge. Putting it back did not remove the charge. So if you simply took something out to check it in, or if you wanted to chill your own beverage, they counted that as consuming the item. They removed the charges if you checked the bill and objected at checkout. But how many people…

Seems like this is standard for every hotel in Vegas.

Re: Hyatt Hotels are using algorithmic Rest “smoking detectors”

#374

Post by Terr_ »

jimt1234 wrote: post #343
grishka wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do hotels in the US not allow you to pay with cash any more? What if you don't have an internationally accepted card?

I worked at a small hotel during college. A couple of girls wanted to rent a room, but they didn't have a credit card. We didn't rent rooms without credit cards, but I made an exception. They paid for the room in cash and provided a small deposit. The girls were so sweet, how could anything go wrong? Well, they threw a party and completely trashed the room. Lots of damage. The police eventually showed up, but the gir…

It feels like if nobody proactively creates a privacy-preserving solution, exploitable ones arise into the vacuum. Or, as a more-depressing thought, they win out anyway.

Re: Hyatt Hotels are using algorithmic Rest “smoking detectors”

#375

Post by Symbiote »

tialaramex wrote: post #93
jdenning wrote: post #18

This seems like outright fraud - how can they charge a cleaning fee and then perform no cleaning?

Leases often work this way. In theory it's illegal in the UK (for a home, businesses are assumed to be big boys who can negotiate on equal footing) but it's still pretty common to be charged when you move out. Specifically UK law says "reasonable wear and tear" is just an expected cost of people living in a house you let to them - so e.g. they're going to wear out carpet after some years, but a cigar burn is not OK,…

I've received thousands of pounds back twice, by arguing my case with the Deposit Protection Scheme.

It wasn't difficult, though it helped that I'd taken lots of pictures on the day I moved out

Re: Hyatt Hotels are using algorithmic Rest “smoking detectors”

#376

Post by SoftTalker »

aerostable_slug wrote: post #337
SoftTalker wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Truck drivers and lots of trades crews (e.g. linesmen) stay in hotels all the time. But typically they are not staying at the Hyatt. There is a whole tier of hotels and other services targeted at the traveling working class which you won't encounter as a highly paid tech professional simply because your company won't book you there.

I chatted with a motel owner in the middle of nowhere, Arizona who made his yearly nut off seasonal melon pickers, usually Mexican nationals on agricultural work visas. They need a place to stay, too. Otherwise, he had the kind of quiet, far out of the way old motel you see in horror movies (which I particularly love) and the odd foreign film set in America. I ran into traveling road crews (as in CalTrans contractors…

When you just need a shower and a bed there's nothing wrong with the old roadside motel, the kind where each room opens directly to the outside and you park right in front of the door. Mostly long gone, though a few remain here and there.

Re: Hyatt Hotels are using algorithmic Rest “smoking detectors”

#377

Post by Eisenstein »

ndkap wrote: post #357
Eisenstein wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Markets are efficient at extracting value from things, but what that value is needs to be determined before we blindly create a market for it. In the traffic light case you mention the value is money, when it should be safety. Traffic lights are installed to ensure traffic flow and safety, so getting a monetary return on a safety device should be non-sensical, but here we are. We should not be involving private marke…

Any efforts to veer the incentive of the market from profit towards vague things like safety or others (DEI, ESG) has been criticized and rolled so far. Can we really make the market prioritize anything other than profit?

Safety is not vague. You quantify difference before and after to determine if they are safer or not, same as if you end up with more or less money.

We can't make a market do anything. But we can at least not do stupid things tasking a private enterprise which has a duty to make profits for investors to be in charge of things which lose money if done correctly. The purpose of fines is to discourage bad behavior -- if fewer people do the bad behavior then that leads to lower income. Any profit motive for collecting fines leads to the opposite of the desired outcome.

Re: Hyatt Hotels are using algorithmic Rest “smoking detectors”

#379

Post by goopypoop »

jfengel wrote: post #94
lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote: post #89

So someone does not smoke in their room but they’re charged for cleaning anyway because a third party (Rest) told the hotel that they smoked in their room. What sort of evidence should one gather during their stay to make the strongest possible (defamation? fraud?) case against Rest? (Not that anyone wants to do that on their trip, just curious about the legal implications.)

Would it work if it were real time? You light up, and five minutes later a manager knocks. Dunno about the legality of refusing to open the door, but it does sound like a way to get banned from a hotel chain.

Is it reasonable to make "use your body to test for carcinogens" part of the manager's job description?

Re: Hyatt Hotels are using algorithmic Rest “smoking detectors”

#380

Post by tedivm »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #347
yubiox wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if you want to get banned from ever staying in a hotel again

Are chargebacks useless now since they usually lead to being banned from that provider/vendor? Do a chargeback for a scammy App Store app, get your 1k smartphone bricked and your emails locked out?

It's always been the case that if you refuse to pay a bill the other party can refuse to do service with you.
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