Westin Guest Finds Gas Canisters Hidden In Room, Charged $500+ For Removal

OMAAT reader Samuel shared a wild story with me, whereby he found five discarded nitrous gas canisters hidden in his hotel room, reported it to staff, and was then charged £375 ($505) for them to be removed.

Hotel accuses guest of lying about discarded gas canisters

This experience involves Samuel’s stay last week at the Westin London City. Long story short, during his stay, he discovered five empty, discarded nitrous gas canisters hidden in the room he was staying in:

• Two gas canisters were found in the cubby space behind the mini-fridge; these were only discovered because the mini-fridge wasn’t working, and he had food he wanted to refrigerate
• Three gas canisters were found hidden behind the headboard; they were concealed, but he noticed a strange shadow when the night lights were turned on, and then made the discovery

The guest decided to bring one of the gas canisters down to reception at check-out, to make the manager on duty aware of this. Meanwhile he placed the other four gas canisters on the bed. The manager on duty was reportedly apologetic, and understood the situation.

A few days later, he received an email from another manager on duty, reassuring him that the housekeeping team had done their job and didn’t find any gas canisters in the room before his stay, and therefore he must be lying, and would be charged £375 for the gas canisters to be disposed of:

I would like to reassure you that our Housekeeping team complete a full cleaning service and inspection ahead of your arrival and they did not find any gas cannisters in your room. Therefore, we understand that these gas cannisters were left in the room after your experience. Due to the nature of the cannister, as a hotel we have to arrange for a specific disposal company to collect the waste which involves a charge of £75.00 per gas cannister, so in your case the total will be £375.00.

The guest emphasized to the hotel that he wouldn’t even know where to buy these gas canisters, and that he arrived in London on the Eurostar. He also made this point in the email response to the hotel:

While I know that you would rather go with the line that “housekeeping complete a full inspection” – the fact is that these canisters probably sat in the room for weeks if not months given there was a pretty thick layer of accumulated dust on top of the ones above bed headboard.  The canisters were in fact completely concealed in daytime – either completely behind the mini fridge out of sight and not easily accessible, or high up where you would only find them standing on the bed and reaching up knowing something was there which in daytime would be difficult to see to be fair to Housekeeping.

The hotel is completely in the wrong here

I of course understand that running a hotel isn’t easy, and that a lot of guests probably tell lies, to avoid having to pay for things. I also understand that in some situations, hotels have to hold guests accountable when their actions lead to significant expenses for hotels.

However, this seems like one of those situations where anyone with an ounce of common sense would probably figure out this guest is almost certainly telling the truth:

• This person works in the travel industry, and arrived by train, where there would’ve been a security check
• He’s very specific about where the gas canisters were hidden, and logically, you could totally see how housekeeping might not notice that during a standard room cleaning
• If he were trying to conceal the gas canisters and get off the hook for paying a charge for them to be disposed of, he wouldn’t bring one of them down to the front desk, and place the remaining four on the bed; instead, he’d hide them, probably in the exact same places where he found them

So, what recourse does the guest have in this situation, assuming the hotel doesn’t want to voluntarily come to its senses?

• He could try to open a claim with Marriott corporate; I don’t necessarily have much faith in that process, since Marriott doesn’t exactly exert strong control over its properties, but…
• He could file a credit card dispute for the extra charge, which is most likely to have a successful outcome

I’d also publish reviews of the hotel on a variety of online platforms, to make others aware of this unethical behavior from the hotel.

Bottom line

A guest staying at the Westin London City discovered five empty nitrous gas canisters hidden in his room, with two behind the mini-fridge and three behind the headboard. He brought this to the attention of the duty manager, who apologized.

However, days later, he was charged £375 for the disposable of the canisters, since the hotel conducted an investigation, whereby the housekeeping team claimed it had done a thorough inspection. What a mess of a situation…

What do you make of this odd hotel gas canister incident?