Holiday Inn surprise charge: a $59 bill for a lamp I didn't damage!

Illustration by Christopher Elliott

Millie Crawford didn’t think much about the lamp in her Holiday Inn Express room. Not until a $59 charge appeared on her credit card days after she checked out. 

The hotel accused her of breaking the wall-mounted fixture. But Crawford insists she never touched it. 

"I did not break the lamp," she says. "I want the $59 refunded."

What followed was a maddening back-and-forth with the hotel --  and a master class in why consumers must fight questionable charges.  

This case raises several important questions:  

• Can hotels charge you for damages you didn’t cause?  

• How do you fight a bogus hotel damage fee? 

• What happens when hotel staff tell conflicting stories?  

Let's take a closer look at what happened.

“We didn’t even use that lamp”

Crawford checked into the Holiday Inn Express Denton South in Denton, Texas, recently. She checked in at 6:30 p.m., left for dinner, and departed before dawn the next morning. 

Looking back, Crawford says she didn't even notice the lamp in the room.

“We didn’t even use that lamp,” she says.  

The trouble began when an assistant manager called days later, claiming Crawford had broken a lamp. Crawford denied she had and appealed to the general manager.

But the manager doubled down on the claim, insisting the housekeeping department checks rooms after guests leave and found a damaged lamp after her stay.

But there were inconsistencies in the stories. The assistant manager claimed managers inspected rooms after cleaning, while the general manager claimed the hotel's housekeeping staff handled all the inspections. 

The conflicting accounts became central to Crawford’s dispute.  

Crawford requested photos. The hotel sent her an image showing a lamp with a missing screw -- not obvious damage. The photo could have been taken in any one of the hotel's rooms.

Crawford appealed to the property's owner and the IHG corporate offices. The owner didn't respond, and IHG, while sympathetic to her problem, said it couldn't help her.

Next stop: A credit card dispute. No luck there, either. Her bank, UW Credit Union, sided with  the hotel, citing the signed waiver she filled out when she checked in. 

Crawford felt despondent.

“How could they prove it wasn’t the housekeeping staff that damaged the lamp?” she asked.

And that's when she made contact with my advocacy team.

Can hotels charge you for damages you didn’t cause? 

Hotels can’t just slap charges on your card without justification. But what kind of justification do they need? Apparently, not a lot. Here's another Holiday Inn property that charged a guest for allegedly damaging a TV. In that case, the Holiday Inn franchisee's attitude seemed to be: "We don't have to prove you damaged the TV. You have to prove you didn't damage it."

Crawford’s case shows why documentation matters. Without photos proving the lamp was intact pre-stay, she relied on the hotel’s inconsistent inspection claims. 

“Two managers couldn’t agree on who checked the room,” she noted. “That’s reasonable doubt.”  

A picture of the lamp allegedly damaged by Crawford.

IHG Hotels & Resorts' franchise model complicated things. Corporate told Crawford to resolve it locally, despite her loyalty status. This hands-off approach is common. IHG, which owns Holiday Inn, wouldn't get involved in this case unless it was a five-alarm fire -- and even then, it can't dictate a resolution.

The lesson? Always inspect your room upon arrival. Note existing damage. Take time-stamped photos. Crawford didn't take any pictures of her room when she checked in or out, so she had no way of proving she hadn't damaged the lamp. And in Holiday Inn's book, you are guilty until proven innocent.

How do you fight a bogus hotel damage fee?

Crawford followed the playbook:

1. Ask for evidence. Crawford requested a photo of the damaged lamp and a repair invoice.

Holiday Inn sent her an image but a review of the correspondence shows it did not send her an invoice with the breakdown of the actual cost to replace the lamp. The image casts doubt on the hotel's assertion that it needed to replace the lamp. This could have been a quick repair by the hotel's engineering department. Another problem: There is no way to prove that it was taken in her room.

2. Escalate your case. Crawford reached out to the hotel and its owners. Everyone down the line denied her request to review the claim and insisted the charge was valid. 

3. File a credit card dispute. Finally, Crawford challenged the charge through her credit union. Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, you can claw back money that has been improperly charged to your card. Here's how the Holiday Inn responded to the dispute:  

Each guest when checking in inserts, taps, or swipes their card for cost of the room, tax, and incidentals in case of linen, room, or smoke damage. When rooms are damaged they are inspected by management even after housekeeping has inspected the rooms. 

The lamp is its own unit into the headboard and the charge appropriately reflects the cost of us to replace the lamp. It was more than a simple screw as the guest suggests. The charge is valid and will not be credited on part of the hotel. The guest agreed to this at the time of booking. No charge was submitted without prior authorization.

The hotel also included a photo of the lamp and her signed incidental waiver. Such agreements let hotels charge first, ask later. And to her credit union, it was enough evidence to rule in favor of the merchant.  

What happens when hotel staff tell conflicting stories about damage?  

The assistant manager said managers inspected rooms post-cleaning. The general manager claimed housekeeping did it. This discrepancy was key to Crawford’s defense.  

Inconsistencies undermine credibility. Crawford had written documentation of both claims, which she included in her voluminous case file. Her paper trail suggested the hotel couldn’t confirm when or how the damage occurred.  

Hotels usually document damages with timestamps and staff signatures. But this property’s haphazard approach left room for doubt. Without clear evidence tying Crawford to the lamp, she had an opening.

Crawford's case is a powerful lesson for the rest of us. When a hotel claims you damaged something -- or really, when any company accuses you of something -- review its documentation carefully for inconsistencies. They could help you resolve the case in your favor.

"My credit card company agreed with me"

I recommended that Crawford appeal her case to the credit union, pointing out the problems with the hotel's claims. She did, and it reversed the $59 charge from Holiday Inn Express. 

"It was always about the principle of the matter," she says. "Not the dollar amount."

Maybe not. But we've had other hotel damage cases on this site for much more. Crawford's case offers a playbook for getting these bogus damage claims resolved quickly and fairly.

The takeaway? Fight back with facts. Take "before" and "after" pictures, especially if something looks broken or doesn't work right. Save correspondence. Challenge inconsistencies. And remember: Your credit card company is your ally. As Crawford proved, even small charges deserve scrutiny when principles are at stake.  

Hotels count on guests rolling over. Don’t. As Crawford’s lamp saga shows, sometimes all it takes is one stubborn traveler --  and a missing screw -- to expose a broken system.