Wrongly accused of smoking in a Travelodge room

[Secchan]

Hello, could you please advice and help? 

I made a booking and stayed at a Travelodge hotel in March.

 

Since that stay ( almost seven weeks later) I have had rather worrying letters from a company called Civil Recovery Solutions (CRS) who claim that there was evidence of me smoking in the room I stayed in.

 

I am a non smoker, I have never smoked and confirmed that I was the only person in the room, and such allegations were unfounded. I categorically denied all allegations but they keep threatening me.

 

After letters between me and CRS we have reached an impasse.

They say they have contacted Travelodge and they still maintain I smoked in the room and have written statements from staff.

I had asked them for evidence and they sent a photo of some cigarette ash.

No date nor time on the photo.

 

I have contacted customer services at Travelodge to sort this out but they said that all correspondence had to be done through CRS. 

In my latest response to CRS, I asked them to stop contacting me with regard to the penalty charge and contacting me further is harassment.

 

What do I do when I get another letter from  them?

Has anyone been wrongly accused of smoking by Travelodge?

 

 

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG.

 

It's a while since we've had a Travelodge problem but you'll see you aren't alone. I'll move your thread to our Travelodge forum and leave you a link from the General Legal one.

 

While you're waiting for people to reply, have a read around and see what other people have done about this.

 

Best, HB

[slick132]

Hi Secchan,

 

If you use the Search Box near to the top right of this page and enter "Travelodge smoking", you'll find many older threads on this topic with advice that suits your case.

 

See an example here -  https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/topic/376035-travelodge-smoking-fine-crs/?do=findComment&comment=4511951

 

 

If you'd come here sooner, we'd have advised that you don't get involved in a string of exchanges. The burden of proof lies entirely with them and with no more than staff statements and undated photos of ash, they're doomed to failure.

 

Time to ignore their demands. 

[dx100uk]

and it's NOT a penalty charge

 

CRS whom are a DCA are NOT BAILIFFS

and have

like any DCA ...ZERO legal powers on any 'debt' no matter what type it is.

 

totally ignore everyone.

 

just incase they get sneaky, if you paid for the booking by a card 

then contact the provider and tell them they are NOT to honour any requests for payment of any kind from Travelodge unless they gain specific authorisation person to person with you.

[stu007]

Hi

 

So Travelodge must be desperate for money starting this fiasco up again oh look you smoked in a room but we wont inform you of our allegation we will do it via a DCA that has no powers.

 

I agree will all the advice already given and it is more important as stated that if you paid by card you inform you provider NOT to honour any payment request from Travelodge. (if you paid this way for the booking they will more than likely try to take this speculative invoice from that card so you need to prevent that) 

 

Stop playing letter tennis with CRS they are only a DCA with no power.

 

What you should ask yourself is why didn't Travelodge write to you with these allegations because they cannot 100% prove it as you have found out by the undated/time on the photo provided. (I wonder is the photo of the windows sill by any chance)

 

 

[BankFodder]

Here's some reading for you:

 

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.travelodge.co.uk?page=3&stars=1

 

Notice that on trust pilot they have 58% one star reviews which is an extraordinary poor rate for such a large company. Some of these reviews include complaints about being hassled by some bounty hunting firm for apparently smoking – also a lot of people complaining about the behaviour of this hotel chain during the confinement and about refunds of fees et cetera.

https://www.google.com/search?q=travelodge+smoking&oq=travelodge+smoking&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l6j69i60.6240j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

No one could fault their no smoking policy – but for some reason rather it is being used to turn a buck or so and they have got this civil recovery firm on board – so the whole thing amounts to a bounty hunting operation.

Don't worry about it at all. Add your reviews to all the other reviews and basically you should stop getting into any correspondence exchanges other than send them one letter to tell them to go and do the other thing and that you consider that they are a bunch of nasty little leeches and as a result of this letter you won't be using the chain again. You can also tell them that they want to take you to court you will be delighted to go along there and you will be producing many tens of copies of the other similar complaints that have been made against their profitable companies in order to milk an extra little bit of revenue out of them on invented pretexts.

Frankly I had thought that they had stop this kind of thing is we haven't heard about it for a couple of years – whereas it used to be extremely common. Maybe after the virus crisis they feel that they need to make some extra money – or some of their staff do. I must say it always cross my mind that maybe some staff were getting a commission on every successful civil recovery collection. What a wicked thought – I suppose it couldn't possibly be true

[Secchan]

Hello HB, thank you for your welcome.

 

I was not sure what forum was best to join and help me with my case so thank you for moving it to the Travelodge forum.

 

Oh gosh! There must have been a lot of others in a similar situation if there is a whole forum dedicated to the matter.

I will have a read. 

 

Once again, thank you.

[dx100uk]

read the earlier posts

ignore them now.

 

dx

 

[Secchan]

Thank you to everyone here who has replied to my post.

I wish I had known about your consumer action group earlier!

I would not have gotten involved in any correspondence exchange with CRS.

 

Almost seven weeks after my stay at Travelodge, I got a nasty surprise in the form of a notice of civil claim!

I was so angry and shocked.

 

I responded to their first letter to explain that I was not a smoker and therefore I denied all allegations!

How naive was I?

They did not listen at all!

 

Their first letter said that the smoking incident in my room was discovered the day after I departed!

When I pointed it out in my response, they corrected themselves saying that they discovered the incident on the day of my departure but reported it the following day! 

 

I feel I cannot keep responding to their letters because I have already told them everything I wanted to in order to solve this but they did not listen. For me , the most important thing is to know that I am not breaking the law by not replying to them,  am I? 

 

I have already replied to three letters from CRS.

I was very clear in my third one and asked them to take it as my final response in the matter.

I asked them to stop contacting me with regard to the £150 charge and contacting me further was harassment.

 

Guess what?

They did not listen at all.

 

I have received another letter from CRS this afternoon.

I have not opened it yet and I do not know whether I want to.

I know how angry I was last time. 

 

Will they keep pestering me?

How much longer are they going to carry on sending me letters? 

 

I have also complained to Customer services at Travelodge hoping that they would help resolve it.

How naive of me?

 

The day after I had sent the complaint, I received their response!

They said that they had conducted internal investigation into the matter and advised me that their stance on this matter was not altered and so any future contact must be made via civil recovery solutions!

How helpful! 

 

when I asked for evidence, they send me a screenshot of booking with my name on it and the room number allocated to my booking. In all honesty, I cannot remember the room number I stayed in.

Who would after so many weeks? I

 

have never seen statements from staff despite several requests made to view them.

The photo they sent me was of a toilet seat with some cigarette ash on it- at least they say that.

All toilet seats at Travelodge  look the same to me so the photo could have bèn taken in any of their rooms.

 

I find it frustrating to say the least.

I do not know when they are going to stop pestering me.

I have instructed my bank not to honour any payment requests from Travelodge today.

Thank you, Stu 007 and dx100uk.

 

Bank Fodder, thank you for your advice.

They are a bunch of little nasty leeches and I will not be using Travelodge ever again.

 

Do you all believe that the best I could do right now is to stop getting into any correspondence exchange with them?

[dx100uk]

you can very safety totally ignore an DCA

no DCA are BAILIFFS

and they have

ZERO legal powers on ANY debt no matter what the type.

 

we've never seen travel lodge raise a court claim ever.

 

plenty of like threads here to read

simply use our search top right.

 

dx

 

[stu007]

Hi

 

CRS are only a Debit Collection Agency (DCA) trying to enforce this 'Speculative Invoice' by way of scare tactic by the letters they send in the hope that you cough up and pay it.

 

They are 'NOT Bailiffs' i.e. If CRS decided to visit your property to try and enforce this 'Speculative Invoice' as they are 'NOT Bailiffs' you can tell them where to go and leave your property or you will call the Police to remove them. (Note: if it was Bailiffs the advice would be completely different but CRS are NOT Bailiffs)

 

So please do the following:

 

1. STOP playing letter tennis with CRS.

 

2. Follow all the advice given here in your Topic.

 

3. If you paid by card inform your Provider immediately NOT TO HONOUR ANY PAYMENT REQUEST FROM TRAVELODGE and you require confirmation of this.

 

4. Have a good read of the links provided here in your Topic.

 

5. Stop worrying yourself about this.

 

Couple of question if you don't mind. (Note: these questions will make no difference to the advice given)

 

1. Could you clarify if you stayed at this Travelodge during the Lockdown due to COVID-19?

 

2. If yes to (1.) Were you classed as a 'Key Worker' at the time?

 

3. If yes to (1.) were you placed in isolation due to the COVID-19 restrictions in this specific Travelodge?

 

[Secchan]

Dx100uk and Stu007, thank you for your further advice and support. I am not responding to any further correspondence; I have spoken to my bank and instructed them not to honour any payment requests from the chain and have the bank's confirmation of this in writing. Stu007, as for your questions- I stayed at the hotel pre-lockdown. The place was very quiet, very few guests at the time. It had been before the restriction were imposed.