Woman Shocked to See Surprise Charge on Las Vegas Hotel Bill That Tripled Total Cost – US News

A woman in the US was horrified to discover her Las Vegas hotel had added a surprise charge to her bill, tripling the rate.

When content creator Jocelyn Harper decided to visit her sister in Sin City to celebrate the US Labor Day holiday (September 1), she decided not to spend money at one of the many luxurious hotels that line the Strip, instead , paid a more reasonable price. $200 (£154) for one night at Westgate Las Vegas.

However, her cost-cutting plan would backfire when she received her final checkout bill – and discovered that an extra $566.90 (£437) smoking fee had been charged.

Jocelyn Harper chose to stay at the Westgate Resort because it was cheaper than hotels on the Strip (AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

Furious to see her bill essentially triple in price, Harper took to TikTok to warn the hotel and asked her followers not to stay there.

“No, don’t stay at the Westgate resort,” she said in the clip. “I wanted a quick and easy place to stay, that had a tram to the Strip, something that wasn’t too expensive but really nice… looked good, looked good.

“I check out and have a $500 smoking fee. I don’t smoke.”

Guidelines on the Westgate website explain that it is a non-smoking hotel and that any guest believed to have lit their room will be charged an additional cleaning fee.

However, Harper disputed this, claiming that not only does she not smoke, but she was also not in her room at 6:15 pm (which is the time the smoke detector was allegedly set off).

She added that she had disputed the fee with hotel reception, only to be told by the manager at the time: ‘there’s nothing we can do’.

She also shared screenshots from TripAdvisor users who claimed the exact same thing happened to them during their stay.

Harper has since spoken to News week about her experience, revealing that she was reimbursed by the hotel and received a free two-day stay after going viral online.

“It was extremely stressful losing almost $600 like that. I was very upset,” she explained.

Content creator was refunded after going viral (TikTok/travelingwithjoce)

While Westgate Resorts Las Vegas has yet to publicly comment on the story, the CEO of the company that supplies the smoke detectors responded, claiming that the room would have been “unquestionably smoked” to set off the detector.

“The room was unquestionably smoky,” said FreshAir Sensor Jack O’Toole News week.

“This technology has been proven in court and through peer-reviewed scientific articles. The Smoking Alert is scientific proof of smoking.”