Marijuana vaping in a hotel room

July 13, 2018 11:57 PM

Since it was legalized in Nevada, I've begun smoking pot recreationally with a vape pen. I don't notice any odor in my apartment. If I take a couple of pulls in a non-smoking casino hotel room at night, will it be noticeable either in the hallway outside my room or to the housekeeping crew that comes through in the morning? In other words, will I get kicked out of the hotel or get hit with a big cleaning fee for smoking (but not cigarettes) in my room?
posted by anonymous to Travel & Transportation (20 answers total)

"A couple of pulls" will not be noticeable.
posted by DarlingBri at 12:56 AM on July 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

Don’t evaluate on your own, ask a non smoking friend about your apartment. I’m very sensitive to vape smells and I would really hate it if I could smell it in a non-smoking room (and likely report it, too). It would really depend on how few, I would think.
posted by frumiousb at 1:23 AM on July 14, 2018 [18 favorites]

I doubt it. The vapor isn't artificially flavored and scented like ecigarettes. It dissipates very quickly.
posted by quince at 1:55 AM on July 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

Vaping in the bathroom with the exhaust fan running and the bathroom door mostly closed should let you create enormous clouds of exhaled vapor without the scent clinging to walls or carpets or furnishings in the main room. And if you get nicely stoned right before taking a shower, you will find that (a) there's a kind of heaven behind the shower screen and (b) the bathroom won't smell afterwards either.
posted by flabdablet at 2:32 AM on July 14, 2018 [15 favorites]

It is unlikely you will face any trouble from doing this unless maybe you spill the contents of your cartridge everywhere. The smell of the supplied bathroom products or the last guests's pizza lingers longer than any residual odor from the vape pen.

I believe it's mainly the tar from combustion that causes a lingering smell, so maybe keep the voltage down low and forgo any chance of cooking the oil to be on the safe side.
posted by wierdo at 3:57 AM on July 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

frumiousb's experience matches mine. I react badly to cigarette smoke, but had heard that vapes were supposedly less potent and their airborne products disappated quickly. Not according to my body, they don't!

I have to go to Vegas for work regularly, drop my bags in my room and head directly to the conference floor, 15-hour days on said conference floor, and then to discover my room is making me sick and now I have to move and I just lost two hours out of my sleep time because I had to move, so now I get 4-5 hours to sleep and then get back to work instead of the 6-7 I was counting on. I *depend* on smoke-free rooms not having been smoked in. Please don't do this.
posted by Pandora Kouti at 5:58 AM on July 14, 2018 [48 favorites]

Yeah, “no smoking” includes “no vaping.” You could always ask for a smoking room, then everybody wins.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:56 AM on July 14, 2018 [21 favorites]

Amazon search for “SmokeBuddy.” Works pretty well for actual smoke. Renders vape output completely undetectable. Costs about $8. Lasts a couple months with regular smoke filtration , probably forever with vape.

Even without it the bathroom method is for all practical purposes effective. The guest next door’s perfume will give off more odor that lasts longer. But trust me, everyone who smokes or vapes cannabis should have a SmokeBuddy (larger, and looks like you’re taking a sip of coffee, easier to use, lasts longer, $12-14) or SmokeBuddy Junior (shirt pocket size, does the job but requires more careful use, lower profile, looks like you’re just coughing into you hand, $8-9) wears out faster) at the ready.

It’s a carbon filter in a colorful (or black) plastic housing is all. A godsend. Much better than an improvised toilet paper filter.

You’re not disguising anything. You’re actually trapping the particulates that bother people and give off a smell.

Or so many people are saying. I wouldn’t know myself.
posted by spitbull at 7:07 AM on July 14, 2018 [3 favorites]

Smokers rarely notice the smell (same with people who wear perfume). Please don't be the person who ruins someone else's trip because you can't be bothered to go outside to smoke.
posted by parakeetdog at 9:07 AM on July 14, 2018 [22 favorites]

I’m very sensitive to cigarette smoke and marijuana vape has never bothered me in the slightest or been detectable for more than about 5 seconds. Not sure if other commenters are thinking of nicotine vape or marijuana vape.
posted by stoneandstar at 9:44 AM on July 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

I vape pot sometimes in a smallish room and there's a definite lingering smell for quite a while afterward. Please don't do this.
posted by mkuhnell at 9:52 AM on July 14, 2018 [6 favorites]

I too am extremely sensitive to perfumes; my eyes have been known to swell shut, and my nose to clog completely, just from being in a room that somebody wearing Axe has sat in within the last 48 hours. I can also tell whether people have been smoking near our house within the past half hour, let alone inside it. And that's how I know that there's a huge difference between releasing smells in a smallish closed room with furniture in it and releasing them in a bathroom with mostly hard surfaces and a working exhaust fan, paying attention to the door so that the bathroom still maintains some negative pressure with respect to adjoining rooms without slowing the fan down.

With the bathroom door mostly but not fully shut, any half decent bathroom exhaust fan will turn over the bathroom air so quickly that smells just don't get time to soak into anything - unless they're tarry, which vaporizer exhalations are not.

If you're vaping in a bathroom with a working exhaust fan, somebody would have to follow you in there within five minutes to be able to detect it in any way, be that consciously or bodily or with instruments.
posted by flabdablet at 10:24 AM on July 14, 2018 [4 favorites]

Of course if you don't have an exhaust fan, all bets are off.
posted by flabdablet at 10:25 AM on July 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

If you're vape is strong enough, take smaller hits and hold it in until nothing comes out. Because pretty much, if it's leaving your mouth, you're vaping inefficiently and that cloud is waste. There's perfectly good Nic/Cannabis in those little aerosolized droplets of floating around that look like fog. Those should be in your lungs and being absorbed instead. Then you don't have to worry about it...

Only problem with going outside is getting back inside and up to your room.
posted by zengargoyle at 11:33 AM on July 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

All good comments above. I would also add that cartridge based vape pens produce pretty much no lingering odor, while if you have a pen that is burning plant material, there can be a bit of a smell. My friends like the Pax pens for cartridges.
posted by bluloo at 12:06 PM on July 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

Sorry it's not clear, are you vaping flower or extract?
posted by masquesoporfavor at 12:35 PM on July 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

Yes I was assuming you were vaping cartridges. Those (usually) already produce almost no odor even immediately upon exhalation and it dissipates within seconds. That and a SmokeBuddy and you’re as close to undetectable as I can imagine. Vaping flowers tends to produce more smell because the heating does cook the flower a bit unless you are very careful. And the flower has an odor even right out of the bag.
posted by spitbull at 3:10 PM on July 14, 2018

For a night or two you could switch to edibles.
posted by 445supermag at 7:46 PM on July 14, 2018

Sorry just saw you're anonymous. Cartridges don't smell, flower still does. Act accordingly!
posted by masquesoporfavor at 8:01 PM on July 14, 2018

Oooo I assumed cartridges too, which are basically nothing.
posted by stoneandstar at 12:01 PM on July 21, 2018