Comfort Inn East Indianapolis False charge of smoking in their room to increase discounted hotel prices Indianapolis Indiana

I stayed at the Comfort Inn East Indianapolis on May 8, 2015.  Upon checking in I booked the hotel through hotels.com at a discounted price.  I then got charged again by the hotel for the full term of my visit.  Mistake numbrer 1.  Hotel was ok, clean but I only needed it for severa hours, I arrived t 11pm and left around 11am after a 2000 mile business trip from Michigan to Dallas.

I then noticed that on May 10, 2 days later, a $50 charge appeared on my card.  So a full day after I visited the hotel they charged me again for something I was not sure what it could be.  I called the hotel and the employee bascially told me I was smoking in the room and that as the charge.  I informed her I have never smoked and that in fact my mother died last year from cancer after years of smoking.  I was pretty angry.  She then admitted that her staff made a mistake on my check in and double charged me and would be reversing the charges on my account.  However, she would not be taking of the $50 for smoking as a violation of their policy.

I informed her that I travel about 150 times a year, mostly with Marriott where I'm a platinum member, and have had no issues in all that time.  I have about 600 stays in hotel in 4 years to give it perspective.  She told me there was nothing she could do.  I asked for her managers name and she gave it to me, and I asked for her managers boss, district manager or owner and she told me there wasn't one.  I knew at this point something was wrong.

After I got a little angry and I admit I was being rough on her, she hung up on me.

I contacted hotels.com and informed them of this breach of service and they were as helpful as they could be.  I then called Choice Hotels and was informed the location is privately owned but they would contact the location and see if they can send me a resolution.  I was to say the least not happy with Choice Hotels response but there was little more I could do but wait.

About 2 hours later I get an email from the manager of this Comfort Inn/Choice Hotel from their web email and she informed me she would refund my double charge for the room but would not refund my $50 because I was smoking marijuana in the room.  Now I was livid.  She also challenged me to contact the BBB and find out they would not support my claim against her hotel.  

I did file a charge with the BBB and I believe what happened here is that this hotel uses hotels.com to get customers in at discounted prices but then trumps up bogus charges of smoking in the room to increase revenue.  After 600 hotels visits in the last 4 years this is the first such fraudulent behavior I have encountered and I am surprised it is allowed to exist at Choice Hotels.