(Source: MIRS.news, Published 05/15/2024) A two-bill package requiring hotels and rental car companies to provide customers with their policy on smoking fees before renting a vehicle or a room received opposition in committee Wednesday from the lodging and rental car industry association.
John McNamara, vice president of government affairs with the Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association, said the change in policy could be detrimental to online check-ins at hotels.
Greg Scott, government relations advisor for the American Car Rental Association, said attempting to set regulations doesn’t work for an industry that operates across state lines.
Rep. Stephanie Young (D-Detroit)’s HB 4902 requires rental car companies to provide their smoking fee policy and amount up front, when a customer receives a price estimate for renting a vehicle.
HB 4903, the companion bill, requires hotels to also notify customers in writing about their smoking fee before a room is rented, along with posting the fee publicly in the hotel.
Both bills would also require rental car companies and hotel management to inspect a hotel room in the presence of a customer upon their request, and provide written notice if they believe a smoking fee will be assessed.
HB 4903 also prescribed a 30-to-60-day, $25 to $50 misdemeanor for hotels that violate the policy.
Young said her bills, which received testimony only Wednesday in the House Judiciary Committee, would help end a deceptive practice across the nation of retroactively charging consumers with smoking fees.
“They leave those places. They leave the car. They leave the hotel room and then, down the road – weeks or sometimes even months, a fee will pop up on their credit card statements saying, ‘Hey, we discovered that you were smoking in your room, and now we need you to pay us, or now we've already taken $250.’”
Young said one of her colleagues has experienced this personally, though she declined to name who.
“When it has happened before, it's a he-said, she-said, because if you leave, when you get that fee, there's really no way to prove that it wasn't you," Young said.
She said even in cases where consumers have never smoked in their life and receive a fee in error, it is incredibly difficult to fight it.
Some people have success fighting it through their credit card company and labeling it fraudulent, she said, but other consumers who go directly through car rental companies or hotels have less luck.
“That's what makes it really egregious, because they know it wasn't them,” Young said. “Personally, when I've gone to rent a car before, and I smelled the smoke on the front end, just because I'm really involved in this, I will let them know. Oftentimes, we won't do that. There'll be a car that will smell like smoke and Febreze, and as soon as the Febreze wears off, all you have left is smoke.”
To address the problem without putting a mandate on the consumer, Young said she introduced her bills, which will allow customers to ask for an inspection and receive confirmation that they won’t be charged.
“When they leave, they have the confidence and security of knowing that there will be no surprises later on down the road,” she said.
Minority Vice Chair Andrew Fink (R-Osseo) said, “I do think that you're destroying the dreams of many college boys by noting that Febreze wears off.”
He expressed concern that an inspection held at the end of a rental term, and not the beginning, could cause problems for renters who don’t report the problem when they first receive the car or check into their hotel room, and end up being charged a fee later on. Young said she feels there is not so much a concern on the front end, but when air fresheners and other ways of hiding a smoke smell wear off.
Rep. Kelly Breen (D-Novi) said one issue she’s also heard brought forward is a concern about vaping, which doesn’t necessarily leave the same scent as regular cigarette smoke.
Young said she hasn’t yet considered that, “but we can.”
Rep. Tyrone Carter (D-Detroit) added that he believes the bill would work better with a limited timeline during which fees can be charged, to stop instances where fees are assessed weeks and months after a car is returned, or a room is checked out of.
Outside of member questions, the bulk of the opposition came from McNamara and Scott, the former of whom believed the change in policy could be problematic for hotels that have “invested significant amounts of money where you can check in on your phone, your phone is your room key and if you don't want to talk to or see another person, you don't have to.
“We just want to make sure that that will be protected,” he said.
McNamara added that hotels with a central check in point and rooms off-site could also be negatively impacted, because off-site inspections could result in transportation costs and time taken away from staff and housekeeping duties.
Scott said the Car Rental Association is also opposed, on the grounds that requiring car rental companies to post all specific costs with respect to smoking fees at every single location across the state is impractical.
“Rental cars travel across the state and are rented at the airport and neighborhood locations, as well as crossing state lines, making disclosure of remediation costs for every vehicle in every location practically impossible,” he said, adding that the cost to remediate smoke damage to vehicles varies greatly by market.
He also expressed concern about the provision that a vehicle flagged for a smoking violation must be taken out of service until a renter can return to inspect it, but doesn’t set a time limit for a renter to return.
“He or she might not return for weeks, months or, quite frankly, ever,” he said. “Such a public policy can only be described as punitive to the rental company.”
Scott added that he also doesn’t believe the bills should be linked, as “hotel rooms don’t move from one place to another.
“Public policy that may make sense for hotel rooms doesn't necessarily make sense for rental cars," he said.
The bill was supported by the Department of the Attorney General, and was not taken up for a vote on Wednesday.
