A Perth hotel has come under fire after it charged a customer $1400 when she used a common brand of hair dryer. Photo / 123rf
A Perth hotel has come under fire after it charged a customer $1400 when she used a common brand of hair dryer. Photo / 123rf
Forking out AU$240 ($259) for a hotel room the night of a concert on a Saturday evening seemed like not too big a spend for one Perth woman.
However, what she didn’t see coming was being charged an extra AU$1400 ($1512) by Novotel Perth Langley after checking out.
The woman was shocked when the fire alarm went off at the hotel the night of the concert after she had showered and blow-dried her hair, according to Perth Now.
She was even more surprised when firemen knocked on her door before she was even dressed.
They had worked out that it was her top-of-the-range Dyson hair dryer that had caused the alarm to go off.
After the incident had been sorted, she went on to enjoy her night at the Ministry of Sound concert at Kings Park and proceeded to check out the next morning with no problems.
It was her top-of-the-range Dyson hair dryer that had caused the alarm to go off. Photo / Dyson
However, just three days later, she was surprised to find a AU$1400 ($1512) charge on her credit card from Novotel.
After calling up the hotel and looking into the mysterious payment, she discovered the four-figure hotel charge was the fee for the fire department call-out.
The Western Australia Department of Fire and Emergency Services’ (DFES) call-out fee is actually AU$1337 ($1444), however Novotel charged the woman AU$63 ($68) more than that.
Although DFES usually passes on call-out charges to hotels for false fire alarms, the department’s policy discourages hotels from passing on the bill to customers.
The hotel guest spent her whole day on Wednesday stressed out as though the expensive charge had left her account in the negative. She tried calling Novotel to have the money refunded to no avail.
“They sent no email, I called the hotel and [reception] said it was in their terms and conditions,” she said.
“So if you’re at a buffet and the alarm goes off are they going to charge you for burning your toast?
She went on to say that the hotel eventually started declining to take her calls and wouldn’t let her speak to the manager.
After emails from both the hotel guest and The West Australian, the hotel’s manager told her on Thursday that the charge had been refunded.
