revenue-generating scheme
Scam. I think the word is scam.
this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2025
552 points (98.9% liked)
A Boring Dystopia
13077 readers
696 users here now
Pictures, Videos, Articles showing just how boring it is to live in a dystopic society, or with signs of a dystopic society.
Rules (Subject to Change)
--Be a Decent Human Being
--Posting news articles: include the source name and exact title from article in your post title
--If a picture is just a screenshot of an article, link the article
--If a video's content isn't clear from title, write a short summary so people know what it's about.
--Posts must have something to do with the topic
--Zero tolerance for Racism/Sexism/Ableism/etc.
--No NSFW content
--Abide by the rules of lemmy.world
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
I'm going to start away from Hilton hotels after reading through this.
The article is about a Hyatt not a Hilton?
Just now? Lmao
I stayed at a "hotel" in Denver a few years ago. It was advertised as a hotel on Hotels.com, and we booked because we thought it was cool that the unit had a full kitchen and was like a condo. We thought it would be the best of both worlds, hotel amenities and Airbnb style room. We get there, and it's basically an apartment building that they've turned into a hotel. They have no staff on site, and I had to download an app to check in and do a face scan. Super not privacy friendly. Then one day we stayed in and we're having a few drinks and conversing. This was 5 guys. We weren't being beligerant or loud, just talking. It was maybe 4 pm, and not quiet hours. I get a text saying there was a noise complaint. Then we bailed and got another text saying there was a 2nd noise complaint. They threatened us with a $500 fee the 2nd time. I told them we were no longer in the room, so it wasn't us. We later found what we assumed was a bug device that notified them if we went over a certain decibel level.
I never got charged, but I was ready to fight tooth and nail with my credit card company if they did. It was very weird, and I would never book with that company again.
Do you happen to have a description of photo of the bug device? Interested to find out whether I am running into a similar situation myself.
https://tritonsensors.com/uses/hotels/
I didn't take a photo, but it was like this.
Set a decibel threshold for each device and receive an alert if it is exceeded.
Show guests that their comfort is your top priority and they’ll leave signing your praises.
Yeah getting a shut the fuck up text every 5 minutes makes me real comfortable. Also they literally advertise it as a revenue stream. How fucked.
Anyone got a mirror of the article that is not geoblocked?
Sounds like a great way to abuse front desk staff by proxy.
Couldn't that be interpreted as a confession that their air is at least as unsafe as staying with a heavy smoker the whole night, in terms of PM 2.5 and other hazards?
Sounds like an easy lawsuit. Record the entire stay, test different variables like a hair dryer, candle, fan, soldering smoke, medical equipment like nebulizer, steamer, etc. If they fine you, simply find a lawyer and request a $5M settlement fee. Boom, early retirement.
Another one to add to the list whenever I hear tech lobbyists shout about how unregulated capitalism breeds innovation.
How is this a plus for guests wtff
Devils advocate, I guess the room won’t smell like shit
Oh it will.
Why would companies who willingly scam you wish to spend money to keep their rooms nice, when they're straight up stealing from their guests?
Have you never watched Hotel Hell?
What’s that guy doing?
"That guy"?
I'm offended on behalf of anyone who's ever cooked or worked in hospitality.
"That guy" is Gordon Ramsay, and he's pulling the firealarm, because the hotel is too filthy for people to actually be habiting it.
You know shit is bad when you're in restaurant/hotel and you see Gordon Ramsay.
Here's the full episode where the gif is from (not only is Gordon pretty good at cooking, he's great at utilising social media and YouTube as well)
VILE Hotel Forces Gordon To Pull Fire Alarm | Hotel Hell FULL EPISODE
Edit if you want the specific bit, here's the 30 seconds preceding the pulling of the alarm and then the alarm (idk if the timestamp works, he pulls the alarm at 28:08)
lol fuck these people and these hotels. It’s not about not smoking, it’s about charging more money.
I tend to huff arsenic trioxide when I stay at a hotel. Will the hotel smoke detectors fine me for that?
I have never seen a more clear cut example of a perfect use case for a credit card chargeback.
Fun fact: You can't dispute part of a charge. If you charge this back and win (you probably will) the hotel loses out on everything, for your entire stay. It also stacks up against them and raises their rates the more they get. An even vaguely concerted effort by people who have been ripped off by this would probably get the hotel in question booted from their credit card processor.
I imagine it's damn difficult to run a hotel if you can't accept credit cards. Just saying.
They disputed it with their bank, the bank sided with the hotel because of the sensor report. Just saying.
How do you prove to the bank or in a court of law that you didn't do something? The hotel is alleging that their algorithm detected smoking.
Besides setting up a camera which seems to be very invasive, how would you fight this?
The burden of proof that the sensors cannot provide false positives falls on the hotel chain, not the person getting charged. There is also the question of whether the sensors can be triggered by someone else, or an adjacent room.
You fight them by filing a lawsuit for fraudulently charging you.
Ah yes, the system keeping the poors in their place.
Most people can't afford the time and money required for this, so they don't bother. So corporations and corrupt people get away with all kinds of things.
This seems like a good point. That said, the bank is the failure point here. I don't know if they are actually bound to any laws, or if it's just the bank policy?
If I were them, I'd bitch the bank out and threaten to leave. This is such a clear case of fraud they aren't fighting.
load more comments
(7 replies)
load more comments
(9 replies)
This is why I preemptively destroy the hotel room.
I looked up the sensor and it's max operating temp is only 112F, which is colder than McDonalds coffee. Hell, the hotel hot water tap is probably hotter than that. The hotel blow dryer gets hotter than that...
That was a very annoying read. I could feel the tiktok plug even before it was posted. This sucks, but oh my god I hate the internet now.
This is the one time I'm gonna be that jagweed and say I liked it. I've never once been on TikTok and I never will. But I was happy to see it in logical and streamlined format. I didn't feel the need to click on anything. Nothing got in the way... no oppressive popups, members-only, ads, etc. How sad is it that as much as you guys are complaining, and you have the right to your opinions, I found it to be one of the cleanest web pages I've seen in months.
I don't visit any of those sites either, in part because the formatting makes telling a story so challenging.
Looking onto a page like this, it's like one story was needlessly chopped up into little bits. Instead of several paragraphs formatted with the purpose of telling a smooth, coherent story, it's cut into chunks whose only parameter is character length. Outside of modern microblog-style social media, that format doesn't happen much. The result is scrolling and scrolling to read something that (I feel) could've been put into a few paragraphs in a single blog post.
Put altogether, it comes off as chunky and without any clear flow. Microblog formatting is not conductive to story-telling. It's not a criticism of the writer (I assume they were doing their best within the limits imposed), but of the formatting that breaks the flow that story-telling relies on.
The result is scrolling and scrolling to read something that (I feel) could've been put into a few paragraphs in a single blog post.
I was pretty much born into the microblog style (or at least not on the Internet during the popularity of regular blog style), and even then I agree that this sucked to read as a microblog rather than a single, more coherent post. I see someone drop a 🧵 and I immediately sigh internally. I don't mind a thread post if it's literally just someone reporting facts, but trying to tell a story (and like, in a exciting or suspenseful way) in threads that are like 2 sentences long sucks. Sometimes I wish people would just post on a blog/article/long post site and then just post ap link to the full text on their microblog.
IDGAF about the topic the post is discussing, and I don't need an article. I was more than fine with a quick, scannable version of what's happening so I can forget all about it. I don't know what you're all triggered on. It's a low-content low-effort highly-viral anti-AI anti-capitalism rage bait garbage post and it deserves no effort on the part of the writer or reader IMO.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Wow. That is.... that is some horseshit.
It’s the Hertz AI scam in a different sector. I suspect every major rental company will have a version of this soon, and that none of them will be auditable or appealable.
view more: next ›