Hotel guests are already annoyed at the “junk fees” that sometimes double the hotel room price. Some examples, according to Consumer Reports, include resort fees, safe fees, Wi-Fi fees, and many more.
But a new concerning trend has been popping up over the last few years: smoking fees. These punitive charges are common and are often hundreds of dollars. The main issue, however, is that they are allegedly being directed toward non-smoking guests who say they never smoked in the room.
This just recently happened to flight attendant Monica Skylling, who took to TikTok to share the story via her account @monica_skylling. Her video has garnered over 123,100 views.
What Happened During Her Hotel Stay?
“Hey, so I had something kind of bad happen to me on a layover a few days ago, and it’s still really bothering me,” Skylling says. “So I thought I’d come on here and see if something similar has happened to any of you.”
Skylling says she was on a layover and had to get up early the next morning. While she was doing her makeup at the table, she saw a piece of paper slide under her door.
At first, she thought it might have been a note from a pilot about a schedule change.
“It most certainly was not that,” she says.
Instead, the letter was addressed to her by name and said “smoking violation fee.”
“So I only read a few sentences at the time, and it says, ‘We hope this letter finds you well. We regret to inform you that it has come to our attention that a smoking violation occurred in your guest room on 5.3.2026 at 6:19am,’” Skylling reads.
That’s as far as she got before she says she started getting upset.
“I don’t smoke… I don’t vape,” she explains, saying she didn’t do anything in the room that would cause any kind of detector to go off.
Skylling says she called the front desk to ask what was going on, but the employee who answered was “so unbelievably rude.”
“He said, ‘Well, it’s a smoking violation fee,’” she says. “And I said, ‘Well, I don’t smoke and I don’t vape, and I haven’t done anything in the room that would cause a smoke detector to go off.’”
According to Skylling, the employee told her the hotel had detectors “for a reason.” He reportedly claimed the device wouldn’t have made a mistake.
She Asked For Someone To Check The Room
So Skylling asked him to come to her room and point out where the alleged smoke was.
“And he never showed up,” she says.
Skylling says she then texted some of her crew members and asked them to come to her room right away. They walked through the room with her and, according to Skylling, found no sign of smoke.
Then they called the front desk again. This time, they got a manager.
“I said, ‘I just wanna know what this is about. We need to fix this, because as a flight attendant, we can get in a lot of trouble for this,’” Skylling says.
According to Skylling, the manager said he would “take care of it.” But she says she wanted someone from the hotel to come upstairs and verify that there was no smoking in the room.
“He again refused,” she says.
Then, according to Skylling, the manager asked if she had dried her hair.
She told him yes, but said her hair dryer was not overheating. Then he asked whether she used the hotel’s hair dryer or her own.
“I said, ‘Well, I was using my hair dryer,’” Skylling says. “And he then got real defensive.”
According to Skylling, the manager then asked her to send him a photo of her hair dryer.
“I said, ‘Excuse me?’” she recalls.
Skylling says she was packed and about to go downstairs for pickup, so she refused to unpack just to photograph her hair dryer.
“I’m not gonna unpack to send you a picture of my hair dryer when the ones that you guys leave in the room are gross and old and full of dust,” she says. “Those are the ones that can be overheating.”
What Did The Rest Of The Letter Say?
Skylling says that before making the TikTok, she sat down and read the full letter.
According to the letter, a $300 fee plus taxes had been applied to her account under the hotel’s no-smoking policy.
“Please note that if your company is paying for your stay and you do not have a method of payment on file, you are required to provide payment for this charge prior to your departure,” Skylling reads. “Failure to do so will result in this incident being reported to your company.”
That part especially worried her because, as a flight attendant, she says a smoking or vaping accusation could get her in serious trouble at work.
The letter also claimed that an “active smoke monitoring system” detected recreational smoking, vaping, marijuana, or cigarettes during a specific time frame.
It said the attached report served as evidence and was supported by “independent research reports” validating the accuracy of the sensors.
Skylling says she did not smoke, vape, use aerosol hairspray, or do anything else she thought could trigger the system.
“So how many hotels are scamming people out of this $300 charge when they’re saying that they’re not going to reverse the charges?” she asks.
Skylling also showed the report on camera, while hiding the hotel information. It appeared to show a graph with a spike and a duration of 21 minutes.
“Really?” she says. “Who smokes a cigarette for 21 minutes?”
Did She Get Charged?
In a video update, Skylling says she was never personally charged because her company paid for the hotel stay.
On her next work trip, while staying at the same hotel chain, she says she brought the smoke report and talked to that hotel’s manager about it.
According to Skylling, the manager told her that this was not a form he recognized. He also reportedly told her that, to apply a smoking charge, a hotel would need to verify the claim by going to the room and catching the guest in the act of smoking.
Is This Common?
Skylling is not the only hotel guest to raise concerns about this.
Many similar reports have come out over the past year. As previously covered by BroBible, one woman staying at a hotel in New York said she was charged a $500 smoking fee. The catch is, she says she wasn’t in the room at the time the report claimed to have detected smoke.
Several other guests at a different New York hotel claimed the same thing happened to them, as per Eyewitness News. In two cases, the hotel allegedly refused to reinvestigate the claims or issue refunds. In one case, the guest reportedly only got a refund once the credit card company got involved.
Boston publication 7 Investigates also reported on a Rhode Island hotel doing the same thing to several guests. In that report, the outlet noted that some sensor companies are pitching the tool as a “profit-maker” for hotels.
What Should You Do In This Situation?
Travel experts advise that, if you notice a bogus fee on your hotel receipt, you should address it at the reception. Ask for clarification right away, and ask for the fee to be removed if you did not break any rules. It’s also a good idea to collect as much evidence as possible.
Should the hotel refuse to remove the charge then and there, you can escalate with the general manager or corporate. If that also fails, you can dispute the charge with your credit card company.
If you want to report the situation, you can also file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, the Better Business Bureau, your state attorney general, or another relevant consumer protection agency.
Commenters Have Heard About This Before
In the comments, many viewers said they had either heard of similar cases or experienced something like this themselves.
“It’s been talked about in Marriott groups too!” one commenter wrote. “People have been getting same charges. Especially in Vegas.”
“This happened to us at Palazzo in Las Vegas, very similar they were so firm about it and would not come to the room, they eventually dropped the fee but was very suspicious as we also do not smoke,” another said.
A hotel worker also chimed in.
“Hotel manager here let me tell you I don’t charge a smoking fee unless we find physical evidence in the room regardless of what our smoke detectors or our sensors tell us,” they wrote. “Because those charges can 100% be disputed and would cause excessive chargebacks.”
“Get a lawyer. sounds like they’re ruining your reputation at work,” another advised.
@monica_skylling Is this a new HOTEL SCAM? #flightattendant #hotelscam #smokingviolation #layover
BroBible has reached out to Skylling via email for comment and more information.