Btw, this is exactly what palantir sells. Pseudo technology to justify whatever you pay it to justify.
Hyatt Hotels are using algorithmic Rest “smoking detectors”
431–440 of 533 posts
Re: Hyatt Hotels are using algorithmic Rest “smoking detectors”
#432WJW. Yeah, this definitely seems like a scam.
1) Always, always look over the receipts of your expenses.
2) When possible, use a dedicated 'travel' credit card for these sorts of things to minimize impact on other accounts.
3) Line out that charge, photograph the receipt, and offer to pay only for the rest of the bill. If that's not acceptable, you can walk away or pay it and then immediately issue a fraud alert on the account. Not a dispute, but a fraud alert.
4) With few exceptions, credit card providers is the U.S. will not process a dispute on the account until the transaction is no longer "pending". That usually takes 2-3 business days.
5) Use that 2-3 day window to communicate with hotel management regarding this issue.
6) If the hotel will not budge, flag the charge as 'fraud'. Upload a photograph of your lined-out receipt to your credit card provider. Never use that particular hotel again.
7) If you don't have privacy concerns, share it on social media.
Re: Hyatt Hotels are using algorithmic Rest “smoking detectors”
#433Earlier quoted context omitted.
Then that sounds like the employers problem, though. Hopefully they audit their expense accounts for stunts like that.
So they check the bill and see that you incurred a $500 fine for smoking in the room they paid for? How does this help :(
At some point the question is: "Do we trust the employee we've had on the books for the last few years".
Fortunately, the mid-sized places I've been at generally trust the employee's story when it comes to expenses -- at least unless it becomes a pattern.
If my workplace took the hotel's side for a bogus charge, I'm not sure I'd want to stay working there...
Re: Hyatt Hotels are using algorithmic Rest “smoking detectors”
#434This is in line with Hertz rental car rolling out car scanners to detect any small ding or whatever, to "unlock a new revenue stream." Every single cent will soon be extracted from our pockets.
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a65176049/hertz-ai-scan-re...
Re: Hyatt Hotels are using algorithmic Rest “smoking detectors”
#435Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can’t you do a charge back? Isn’t this a key kind of protection that credit cards give you?
Only if you want to get banned from ever staying in a hotel again
I don’t know what I’m talking about but doesn’t that go both ways? If (say) AmEx is getting a ton of chargebacks from this one hotel, don’t they at some point say “that’s enough of that” and drop them as a client? It seems the hotel should really have a huge incentive to not do crap like this?
Re: Hyatt Hotels are using algorithmic Rest “smoking detectors”
#436From their FAQ: "Is it worth the investment? Absolutely. Hotels equipped with Rest have seen an 84x increase in smoking fine collection. Plus, our smoking detection technology helps prevent damage to rooms and reduce a number of future violations." Apparently there are way more people smoking than we thought there are or the sensor just generates a lot of false positives. The language they are using all over the site…
Is there that much smoking in hotels? Do they charge more for smoking rooms? A number like 84x suggests that it's basically zero now. That kinda makes sense. The only one who would notice is the cleaning staff, and relying on their word for "it smelled like smoke" sounds like a way to get a chargeback. They'd call you on it only if they were forced to take the room out of rotation to air it out. So maybe there are a…
I’m fairly certain that most US hotels, you will get complaints from the neighboring rooms about someone smoking. I don’t think you need to rely on the cleaning staff for detection.
Re: Hyatt Hotels are using algorithmic Rest “smoking detectors”
#437WJW. Yeah, this definitely seems like a scam. 1) Always, always look over the receipts of your expenses. 2) When possible, use a dedicated 'travel' credit card for these sorts of things to minimize impact on other accounts. 3) Line out that charge, photograph the receipt, and offer to pay only for the rest of the bill. If that's not acceptable, you can walk away or pay it and then immediately issue a fraud alert on t…
[deleted]
Re: Hyatt Hotels are using algorithmic Rest “smoking detectors”
#438Earlier quoted context omitted.
The hotels don't ever catch people in the act, they just let housekeeping report that the room smells like smoke and they take the fine out of your deposit. That's why they demand a deposit (or a card), by the way.
Leave a $20 for the housekeeper and you won't get reported.
Why wouldn’t they report you? It isn’t like you know who your housekeeper is or that they have any reason to believe you’ll be a repeat guest that will continue to tip them.
Re: Hyatt Hotels are using algorithmic Rest “smoking detectors”
#439Earlier quoted context omitted.
Always take full pictures of a unit the day you move in before any items are in, and the day you move out after cleaning. That's already saved me once when a property manager tried to do this to us.
Hah, an apartment complex I was at had me go sit in the PM's office prior to our move out inspection. "She'll be with you in a minute". Without snooping (I just caught my name on a form on her desk out of the corner of my eye), I noticed that it was my move out inspection form. It already had remarks on it like "blinds dirty, need professional cleaning", "scuffs on drywall, needs painting", "carpet stains, need profe…
I did the same thing once (6mo lease, prepaid), and had the exact same issue. Eg, that they were not used to having the first/last being an extra line item.
Re: Hyatt Hotels are using algorithmic Rest “smoking detectors”
#440Earlier quoted context omitted.
>some sort of high pass filter Quite some algorithm you got there!
There is a concrete algorithm, IIRC complete with pseudocode, in the datasheet. You can find open source implementations in various places. And you can have your own opinion about whether the algorithm is fit for your particular purpose.
I was jabbing at the "algorithmic smoke detectors", not the concept of filtering sensor output.