I needed to stay one night near the CLT airport after a late arrival. Booked this on Priceline. Check-in was very efficient. BUT I went to my room and immediately smelled smoke --- not fresh smoke, but it was a smoking room. I looked at the door, and sure enough there was a smoking ok sign on it. i called the front desk to see if they had a non-smoking room, which is what I had requested on Priceline. They said i was in a non-smoking room. I said I had checked the door and it was clearly a smoking room, and it smelled like it. She said, well it is a non-smoking room, but I will check on another room. Back to the front desk. On the way out, I got a guest in the hall to smell the room, and he said "definitely smoking."

I got to the front desk and the clerk / manager was on the phone. The other clerk asked if she could help, and I said "She (pointing to the other one) is going to get me into a non-smoking room." The first clerk then hung up the phone and said, "You were in a non-smoking room." I said, "I'm not clear how you can say that when the sign says smoking and the room smells like smoke." To which she replied that they had recently converted some rooms to non-smoking. Ha ha ha. Recent must have been 15 minutes ago. Anyway off to room 2.

Room 2 had a non-smoking sign on it, but when I walked it, it had the same very-smoked-in smell. Not fresh smoke, but clearly a smoking room, too. I didn't even pull my bags in. Another guest, a 30-something well-dressed exec type (which is my normal dress), was passing by and willing to smell the room. He said he didn't even have to go in. It reeked of old smoke. He said he heard some other complaints about rooms when he was checking in at the desk. I walked back up to the desk.

"But sir, that room is non-smoking! "

"Again, I had another guest smell the room with me to have a sanity check, and it has been smoked in and not freshened. I would like a room that has been non-smoking room for a while if you have it."

They gave me a room on the 3rd floor, which had an old-looking non-smoking sign on the door. I went in; it smelled completely normal, and I went to bed and slept well.

In the morning I told the new manager this story, calmly and with no-one else around. I was going to let it drop and not write a review --- BUT she again told me my original room was non-smoking, but they ran out of signs when they converted the room. I told her that the room definitely required a refreshing to be non-smoking.

Know about all those $200-300 fees for smoking in a room. Aren't those for cleaning the drapes, walls, and carpet? They can get a maid for 16-20 hours for that amount of money and give up a night of room rent. But the Doubletree Airport Charlotte had decided to convert these rooms with, apparently, no real work. Just call it a non-smoking room, and VOILA!

The main thing that needs to change, though, is the attitude. Front desk clerks should not try to convince customers that they are wrong when the customer is clearly right.

I would be remiss in not mentioning that the restaurant breakfast was mostly good (only the omlette tasted off), and the manager/waitress on duty was professional and sweet.