Chalk this up to my naivete, but what is the difference between a hookah and a bong?
–SMM
We always called a multi-participant device a hookah. Multiple hoses coming off the center unit. A bong is a one-man operation.
And a bong typically dose not have any sort of hose (one solid piece apart from the bowl).
Also, any store which sells smoking accessories will not sell you a bong…they will, however, happily sell you a water pipe.
For a bong, you draw the smoke right from the top of the tube and only one person smokes at a time. For a hookah you have one or more hoses (usually more) tapping into the chamber and as many people can smoke at one time as there are hoses.
Generally speaking, a bong has the bowl in the bottom on the side (and you inhale from the top), and is lit with a lighter. A hookah has the bowl on top and is kept lit with charcoal (and you inhale with a hose or [usually] hoses).
Also, perhaps more significantly, a bong is usually used for pot while a hookah is usually used for flavored tobacco.
ETA: A bong is also cleared after each hit, while a hookah cycles the smoke continuously.
“Miss, if you call it a bong one more time, I’m going to have to ask you to leave the store.”
-said to a friend of mine during some pre-holiday shopping. She shut up right quick and her hubby did the rest of the talking and closed the deal on the ‘water pipe’ purchase.
Also, a bong has a carburetor; usually a small hole that the smoker covers while lighting the weed and then releases to allow the smoke to rush in one big moment. A hookah does not have a carburetor. ETA: I see someone else also said this upthread.
And, to be more precise, sometimes the bowl covers the carburetor and its stem is pulled in order to release the carb.
The coals may be traditional, but I’ve smoked many a hookah and never used coals.
Oh…and yeah…it was definitely flavored tobacco. Definitely.
To be fair, you were actually using a hookah shaped bong. 
But, on a serious note, if I were smoking pot with a hookah (which I wouldn’t), I wouldn’t use coals, either. It’d be a waste.