Travel Lodge Fine

[Tracy Bastow]

Hi Everyone

 

My name is Tracy and I am looking for a little advice regarding a travel lodge smoking fine, which was sent to my partners employers, when he was working away for them and stayed a couple of nights in a Travel Lodge, some 2 weeks later his employers received a £150 fine! from Travel lodge claiming he was smoking in the room and their evidence was that the cleaners smelt smoke and there was cigarette ash on a window ledge,my partner categorically denies this ,so his employers sent this back

 

Good Afternoon

 

We are in receipt of your letter dated 30th October 2012 regarding a claim against us for smoking in a room at the Travel Lodge in Uxbridge 16th October 2012.

 

We have spoken to our employees who were staying there at that time and we asked if either of them had been smoking in their room at the hotel.

 

They both categorically denied smoking anywhere in the hotel, therefore we refute your claim for breach of contract and the £150.00 charges for specialist cleaning, loss of rental and consequential damages.

 

We look forward to your advices in due course.

 

The reply was that their cleaners were willing to sign a statement!

 

To cut a long story short, I did some searching and found quite a lot out about these so called fines and so called evidence and also found out that it had been on watch dog! and lots of people are being accused and fined for a offence they did not commit.

 

This fine as been paid by his employers which we are very upset about as we would have preferred they take it to court as we feel they do not have any real evidence and he would have liked to defend himself, may I had that this money as been deducted from his wage! very unfair I feel, I have emailed Travel lodge chief executives office regarding our grievance and received a reply for further details and it would be looked into, which I have now sent and awaiting a reply.

 

Any help or advice anyone can give would be very much appreciated as I feel I cannot let this rest we are £150 out of pocket for something he did not do!

 

Thank Tracy

[stu007]

Hi

 

These idiots again with the same [problem] your were smoking cleaner said so and ash on window sill so where exactly is there evidence of this

 

write to these idiots and refute there claim of smoking in the room - (If you do smoke and did it outside of travelodge the smoke gets on clothing)

 

you also require the following:

 

1. Clarification if that room was used after your stay.

2. Photographic evidence of the supposed ash on the window sill.

3. Copy of that travelodges statistics on how many people they have fine £150 in the past 6 months.

4. Copy of the Cleaners checklist.

5. Copy that the room had been cleaned properly before being occupied.

6. Travelodges Policy and Procedure on the cleaners duties and tasks and confirmation that these were actually carried out as this could also be an issue that Travelodge should actually be investigating that there cleaning staff are actually carrying out these duties before accusing people with no right of appeal.

7. A copy of the cleaners witness statement notarized by a solicitor only and to point out that this should also have been completed before Travelodge passed this to CRS so I require further clarification as to why this has not been done before passing this to CRS with false accusations.

8. Length of time that cleaner has been employed by Travelodge and Training given.

9. Complete breakdown of the £150 costs.

 

Something to bear in mind this is not a Fine or Penalty Notice it is only a Speculative Invoice

 

Also if you type Travelodge into the Search there are a few threads on Travelodge

Edited November 16, 2012 by stu007

[Tracy Bastow]

Thanks for the reply, I am absolutely appalled amd disgusted at the way they are dealing with so called smoking fines they are just sending out to people, it appears that they are judge and jury and in some cases the £150 is just taken from debit cards that were used at the time of booking the rooms, I cannot believe that they are getting away with this sort of thing! i was always believed everyone was innocent until proved guilty and I am afraid I do no think this is proof, I watched the watch dog episode re : Travel Lodge Smoking Fines and it was amazing they actually fined one man and when he asked for proof they sent him a photo of a ceiling with a smoke alarm and a sock over it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! best was the man was in a wheel chair!!!!!!!!!! OMG these people are idiots...........or are they???? they raking in plenty of £150!!!! it appears

[Sidewinder]

You need to insist that the money is repaid by the employer under threat of an Unlawful Deduction claim to an Employment Tribunal.

 

We have a forum specifically for this matter and I will move your thread there.

[paul_s]

by the way, has one of these attempts ever actually gone to court?

Edited November 20, 2012 by honeybee13
Problem wording.

[Bazooka Boo]

by the way, has one of these attempts ever actually gone to court?

 

In a word No! I've still yet to see it. They use civil recovery procedures as it is a civil and not a criminal matter, which takes the biscuit when they have clearly stated that it is against the law to smoke in their buildings.?? Methinks someone doesn't know the difference between lawful and legal, ruddy parasites.