After staying near a concert venue,

guest told room 'unsellable,' charged for damages

A no-smoking notice sits inside a hotel room. This image is unrelated to the article. [123rf]
A no-smoking notice sits inside a hotel room. This image is unrelated to the article. [123rf]

An accommodation's demand that a non-smoking guest pay 200,000 won ($130) in damages — on the grounds that her room smelled of cigarettes — has gone viral online.

On Wednesday, a post originally shared on the social media platform Threads the previous day began spreading rapidly across multiple online communities, including Bobaedream, under the title "A person who got sued just for sleeping."

The guest, identified only as A, opened her post by saying she had "experienced something truly absurd," explaining that she had stayed at an accommodation near a concert venue after attending a show.

According to A, she and a female acquaintance signed a no-smoking agreement before checking in. The two then spent the evening at the concert and stayed out until around 5 a.m., when they returned to sleep, checking out around noon.

About 20 minutes after checkout, she received a text message from the accommodation.

In the message thread A shared publicly, the accommodation stated that "a cigarette smell judged to be from smoking was detected in room OO today," and demanded she transfer 200,000 won as a penalty for violating the no-smoking policy. The accommodation said all its rooms were non-smoking and that the charge was based on notices provided at check-in and inside the room, describing the amount as compensation for being unable to sell the room for a full day.

A said both she and her friend were non-smokers who had not smoked at all. "So I asked them: 'We didn't smoke — the window in the room was open from the start, so isn't it possible the smell came in from outside?'" she wrote.

The accommodation reportedly responded by demanding she provide proof that she had not smoked. A said the property told her it would accept only 70,000 won if she admitted to smoking. "How am I supposed to admit to something I didn't do?" she wrote, expressing her frustration.

She added that when she continued to deny smoking, the accommodation suddenly sent her a photo of a complaint filing, saying, "Then we'll see you in court."

In a subsequent text, the accommodation warned A that if she had any objection she could submit evidence for review, but that failure to pay could lead to a formal civil lawsuit. "We will proceed with civil action immediately," it said.

A replied that neither she nor her fellow guest had smoked in the room, that she did not accept the charge, and that she was requesting objective evidence of in-room smoking as well as the basis for calculating the damages. The accommodation responded with a brief message: "We'll see you in court later."

Online commenters reacted with a mix of outrage and skepticism. "Is this some new scam in the accommodation industry?" one wrote, while another said, "Shouldn't they have to present evidence of smoking first?" Others called it "the mentality of someone trying to fleece guests during peak season," and some suggested A visit a health center for a test before filing a false-accusation complaint, or obtain a doctor's certificate confirming she is a non-smoker and bill the accommodation for the cost. A few commenters, however, questioned whether A had smoked and was deflecting blame by claiming the smell drifted in from outside.


jshan@heraldcorp.com