Being a smoker, upon realizing that our room had a balcony, we couldn't resist ourselves. Knowing that it was a non-smoking room, we were very careful not to leave any cigarette ash lying around or litter our cigarette buds on the floor. We also made sure the balcony door was closed so that no smell would enter the room. We made a makeshift ashtray and threw away our cigarettes appropriately (with water) in a plastic bag, tied it up tightly and threw it in the dustbins.
On Day 2, after being out for more than 12 hours, we came back to our hotel
tired and exhausted only to be approached by the staff who asked us if we were smoking in our rooms. This was when they showed us a picture of our trash, where they opened up the plastic bag containing our cigarette buds and took pictures. Firstly, we were not unhappy that we were fined. Knowing that it was a non-smoking room, we were okay with that and accepted the charges. The thing that really bugged us was the fact that they actually went through our trash, opened it up and took pictures of it. If I had documents/letters with sensitive information and decided to tear it up and throw it in the trash, I would definitely not be happy or feel safe knowing the cleaners are able to look through our trash and take pictures.
To top it off, during check-out, they accused us of stealing their towels (never happened to me before in my life).
