A woman staying at a hotel in Las Vegas was alarmed to see an unexpected $58 charge appear on her bill.
Alexia Muller, from Los Angeles, was staying at the Vdara when she says the incident occurred. Muller subsequently took to her TikTok, @alexiaam330, to warn viewers about what happened. She told Newsweek: “Hopefully people learn things like this exist.”
Newsweek reached out to Vdara for comment on multiple occasions.
In the video, Muller says: “Please help, look at this” before pointing the camera in the direction of the TV screen in her room where a $58 charge to the “VDA Refreshment Center” is visible on the screen.
The reason behind the charge is soon revealed. “I didn’t realize that the mini bar fridge is self-sensored,” Muller says on the video.
According to the clip, which amassed 1.4 million views since being shared earlier this month, Muller made the mistake of picking up a pack of condoms and lubricant available from within the fridge to poke fun at “what the heck is that?”
However, in doing so, she triggered a sensor built into the fridge and was charged.
“The lady knew as soon as I called,” Muller captioned the video.
Mini bar fridges are rarely high on the list of priorities for travelers these days. In fact, a Tripadvisor survey of nearly 20,000 vacationing U.S. adults saw them rank among the least important hotel amenity in 2013.
Some of that might well be down to the charges incurred for anyone using them. Muller was certainly facing a hefty bill herself for her actions during her Las Vegas stay.
But Muller confirmed the issue was dealt with quickly and in a satisfactory manner.
“I called the front desk as soon as I noticed the charge and explained what happened,” Muller said. “She said it happens all the time and that she would remove the charge.”
However, Muller says the refreshment center wasn’t the only mini bar item she had a problem with.
“The hotel actually also charged us for some water and M&Ms that were on the counter that had no warning sign of being self censored. So I had to complain about that at the checkout when I saw those charges.”
Thankfully, again, Muller says Vdara were happy to correct the record.
“When I complained about the ones when we checked out the woman at the desk asked if we had opened anything and I said no and she said she’d remove those charges too,” Muller said.
Though this issue was resolved in a satisfactory way, she was “surprised” to get charged for these other items as she claims there was “no sensor” mentioned for them. She also expressed concern that her group “weren’t notified when we checked in” about the potential charges as they “did early check in on the app.”
Despite the initial shock, Muller was able to laugh about what happened. “It was kinda funny to me and my friends because we thought the price was outrageous,” she said.
The hope now is that those watching her video avoid making the same mistakes they did. “It seems a lot of people don’t know or notice the small warning signs,” she said. “Better to know than potentially miss the charges later.”
This isn’t the first time a hotel room charge has gone viral on social media.
In October last year, a woman went viral after being charged for smoking in her room during a stay in Las Vegas. Though she denied the claim, the CEO of the company behind the hotel’s smoke detection system told Newsweek she “unquestionably” did.
Then there was the man inexplicably charged $68,000 for a beer during a stay at a UK hotel in 2019.
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