Forbes Traveler has compiled a list of the top 10 most annoying hidden hotel fees. We’re not exactly jetsetters or anything so a few of them were news to us.
Apparently we’re not the only ones who haven’t heard of some of these fees, Forbes Traveler says that there have been lawsuits over them:
In Maulding v. Hilton Hotels, Hilton was forced to settle a class-action suit relating to hidden resort fees at 11 of its resort properties. Wyndham Hotels paid $2.3 million to settle with the state of Florida in 2006 after a five-year investigation showed that it had not adequately disclosed hidden fees. Today Wyndham discloses all fees nationwide and requires that online sites that sell rooms on its behalf do the same. Still pending is a lawsuit by James Shulevitz against Arizona’s Phoenician resort, where he was forced to pay undisclosed housekeeper and bellman gratuities.
The Top 10 Most Annoying Hidden Hotel Fees:
The Resort Fee
“Why, then, would a resort tack on an additional $10 to $25 resort fee for each day of your stay, even if you never go near the pool or the beach? Because it can.”
Telephone Fees
“AT&T would charge our hotel 10 cents per local call. The hotel would then charge the guest between $1.50 and $2. Long distance was even worse. It’s a very easy way to add to the bottom line.”
The Energy Fee
“In reality, the fee has nothing to do with the amount of energy you actually consume during your stay. It just is what it is.”
The Technology Fee
“You’d think by now hotels would be scrambling to offer free high-speed Internet access as a competitive advantage, but that’s often not the case.”
The Groundskeeping Fee
“Here’s hoping you enjoy looking at the rose bushes that line the resort’s driveway. They could cost you an additional few bucks in “groundskeeping fees,” one of the more absurd fees that some resorts have come up with.”
The Towel Fee
Proceed with caution, especially at poolside, where cabana boys will offer you extra towels and then ask for your room number.”
The Safe Fee
“One could easily argue that a fee for an in-room safe is fair…if you actually use the safe. What’s unfair is charging you $3 a day just for the privilege of sleeping in the same room with a safe even if you never touch it. “
The Housekeeping and Bellman Fees
“Maids and bellmen work hard for the money, and they depend on tips to supplement their income. That’s fine, but the tips should be up to you, not up to the hotel, which may assess mandatory gratuities but not tell you until you check out, long after you’ve already put cash in hands all around the hotel.”
The Parking Fee
“Hotels routinely get away with charging $20 or more per night (plus tips) for mandatory valet parking, even if there’s a convenient hotel parking lot just steps away.”
The Mineral Water Fee
“How nice to see a bottle of Evian or Fiji water on the credenza next your bed, just begging to be the quencher of your traveler’s thirst. And how utterly frustrating to be charged a $7 anti-dehydration fee.”
The Top 10 Most Annoying Hidden Hotel Fees (Article) [Forbes Traveler]
Top 10 Most Annoying Hidden Hotel Fees (Slideshow) [Forbes Traveler]
(Photo:DCVision2006)
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c’mon – nobody mentions the copy of USA Today you get for ‘Free’? Check it out, it is usually a 75cent Opt-Out option. Now, the 75 cents doesn’t bug me much, but the extra waste and the misleading nature of this ‘benefit’ really does…
If you’re going somewhere that charges parking and there’s a casino nearby, check if the casino will give you free parking in exchange for gambling there. When I went to Nigara Falls, ALL the hotels charged $10-$20/day for parking. I found out that as long as I gambled I think $20/2 days in the casino, I would get free parking. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that if you’re going to gamble anyway, you might as well get something from it.
To hell with the Doubletree and their parking fees. By the way, make sure you find out if breakfast is or isn’t included in your rate. By neglecting to read the word “not” as in “Breakfast is not included in the guestroom rate” I was fleeced for $40 for two omlettes, cereal and orange juice.
I remember in the ’90′s all the employees at the resorts in Hawaii went on strike. One of their “demands” was for the hotel to start assessing their guest the “Housekeeping / Bellman Fee” They didn’t get it then, but they might have gotten it in the intervening years. Or maybe they just got the idea from the union and started doing it on their own.
WHY SHOULD I HAVE TO OPT OUT OF THE USA TODAY FEE?
I am on business here at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco… the room is only $174 a night which is pretty good for downtown SF, with a view of the bay.
But parking is $55.00 a day! Yes, $55.00. That is not a mistake that should read $5.00. It is $49 + tax.
Amazing…
@timmus: “Minibar Underconsumption Recovery Fee”– well, Verizon already adds their $2 fee every month now when you don’t happen to use any of their (landline) long distance services. What’s next… will my local gas station ding me every month when I fail to fill up there?
Daily newspaper fee.. I saw that in a hotel once, even if you didn’t read the one they tossed outside your door every morning. Turns out if you thought to tell the desk when you checked in you didn’t want the paper every morning, they’d skip you and not bill you for it.
A number of years ago, the clamor over hotels charging outrageous fees for using their phones resulted in most hotels posting prominent placards or notices in the rooms listing the fees up front. Did some legislation require them to do that, or did they get sued?
Seems like we now need another bit of legislation or a lawsuit to force them to post all these other fees prominently at the front desk so you can review them when you check in. You know how the car rental companies force you to initial key parts of the rental agreement? Something like that will need to happen with this.
Expensive parking in San francisco is the norm. Have you ever tried to park on your own there? It’s close to impossible. The good thing is that public transportation is so good you don’t need a car there. If you fly to SFO take the BART downtown and if you drive just don’t stay in the city. $50 a night for parking is the norm there.
Also, according to AAA $2 per bag is the standard for bellman. Don’t be so cheap. Plus if you don’t like your room there’s a good chance the bellman will get you a better room. He knows the rooms better than anyone and works for tips. Just give him a good one unless you want a 3 a. m. wake-up call.
Man I used to live like a few miles from this place. it was Miami Beach just north of Bal Harbour. Creepy as hell seeing the sign again.
@ladyamazon:
Okay how about I leave a pen on your desk when I check in. If you or any of your guests use this pen you agree to give me 40 cents. Sound reasonable?
And, I was wrong about the vagabond motel. This is actually a slummy crack hotel in El Portal on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami. No, I never lived near here, just had it confused with somewhere else.
I agree with pps about LaQuinta (they also let you bring big dogs – a plus when traveling for us). Hampton Inn is also a great option for business travel – both chains usually offer free Wifi and free hot breakfast. We’ve recently had success staying at “corporate housing,” a furnished 3 bedroom apartment, for a week in Indianapolis – for less than $600 a week. 4 adults, 1 child, no occupancy tax. It was great. Just do a search for corporate or executive housing and you might find a cheaper option than a hotel, especially if traveling with kids. Helps if you have a car, though.
I recently stayed in a hotel in midtown Manhattan. This is a seller’s market for hotels. Even so, I didn’t have half of this crap!. They did have the $7 mineral water (though I would point out that New York has the best tap water in the world), and I imagine the telephone fees were up there as typical…. I don’t know; I just used my cell phone.
@Buran: Wasn’t there a furry con at the Hyatt Woodfield this past weekend? Hotels have a lot of trouble keeping up with the demand of fan conventions. They may have been out of rollaways. Hell, they may have been out of appropriate rooms.
I’m not saying that it excuses them, but I’ve worked with a lot of conventions and I see it all the time.
Hey!! I used to live down the street from the Vagabond Motel! It really is that classy
@jurijuri: And that is my problem how? They had 5 months notice to ensure that they could accomodate us. They didn’t.
If I don’t get a satisfactory answer, Hyatt lost a customer. Forever.
Last time I stayed in a hotel (in Milwaukee after a flight was delayed) the airline paid for it. Since I had some work to do I asked about internet access. They told me it would be $29 out of pocket for me to use their wifi and I declined. I fired up my laptop when I got up to my room and did a quick network scan and found a couple different MAC addresses around me. I wrote them down, and a few hours later (Since I am a night owl) when one of them had signed off I changed the MAC address my laptop was sending out and they let me right online. Just a thought to avoid the wifi fees, but make sure the other one got offline or else you may both get kicked off.
@twoback: Bellagio automatically charged my room for M&Ms that my husband picked up and put back. I think it was $4.50. They took it off with no problem, but the automatic billing was trippy.
@Buran: Didn’t say it was.
However, it’s always a good idea to check in as early as possible at a con, because they overbook those suckers. They don’t care who reserved first; it’s all about who gets there first.
i know that hotel sign! thats in miami not far from where i used to live, right on US-1
@S_SILVERS:
you should see how expensive it is to live here
@jurijuri: They’ll care when their execs start getting the carpet bomb for leaving someone on the freakin’ floor … and I didn’t check in any later than I habitually do when travelling, either. If a hotel thinks you have to check in at 2AM to get what you reserved, they’re out of their minds.
Is 48 hrs typical for an emailed complaint? I’ve been waiting about that long so far.
This is called the “Principle of the Lazy Rich”.
If you are staying for more than a few days at a resort, you might be able to avoid massive fees to use their internet by calling ahead of time, finding out who provides it, and signing up for a month of roaming access with that company. I stayed at a resort that wanted 15 bucks a day for wireless. Thankfully, on the way there I stopped at O’Hare and signed up for a “cheap” month with Boingo for something like 10 bucks. Then I just had to cancel after I left.
@MatthewVA: In NYC all you have to do is to stick your computer next to your hotel room window. You’re bound to find free WiFi. I just make sure I use SSH for security.
@Buran:
I’d say 48 hours is generous.
I’d have been emailing that night from the floor
I was sleeping on.
I’m curious which hotels are more likely to have these fees. I’m pretty much a Marriott whore, and I always reserve online. They seem to do a good job of spelling out all the fees, and I’ve never been blindsided by anything unexpected.
This sounds like a potential project that might guide consumers to less unscrupulous hotels and maybe hit them where it hurts (kind of like the gift card fee web site that spells out all the fees of various retailers).
I’d gladly pay a $10 “DNA Removal Fee” before and after my stay.
I used to be a housekeeper for an “upscale” chain of hotels and they refused to implement a “Housekeeper’s Fee” that would go directly to the person who cleaned the room. If they had one it would go to the hotel. The fee should definitely be given to the housekeeper because we do depend on tips and people should always leave at least a couple of bucks behind for having someone else clean up after you.
In my experience, the more a hotel charges for the room, the more likely they are to hit you for additional fees, the more additional fees they will hit you for, and the higher those fees will be.
If the local Krystal hamburger joint offers free Wi-Fi, you know the Sheraton’s hourly fee for that service has nothing to do with what it costs them to offer it.
What I can’t believe is they actually charged me a “structural damage fee” when I set a hotel in Vegas on fire last week.
So the next time I’m calling about prices, I know to ask about these fees…. Every. single. one. And I’ll record the call so when I get charged them, I’ll play the tape and ask for an explanation… Maybe I’ll throw a copy of the tape and the bill to the local newspaper just for kicks… And we’ll see how fast they fall over themselves to pay me off…
How long will it be before they put sensors in the sinks and charge you for the amount of water used? I mean this is getting ridiculous. When I travel, I stay at budget/mid priced places so I don’t have to deal with this stuff, and have had much better experiences.
@hellinmyeyes: Similar to my experience with Residence Inn ( Marriott hotel). Free internet; free, good breakfast; afternoon snack (almost a meal!) for free; free alcohol during snack time in places that it’s legal; a real fridge; and a kitchen.
My only complaint is that the new Residence Inns are all hotel style, you know, huge single building.
I spend an average of over 100 nights a year in a hotel. I tend to stay at Hampton Inn, Fairfield Inn or Hilton Garden Inn. They are always clean, well lit and well kept up. I have stayed at a number of Holiday Inns (too many are not kept up to date), Holiday Inn Express (can be real bad at times, kind of a crap shoot), Comfort Inns (better than Holiday Inn Express, but there have been a few bad ones), Best Western is the same way. The nice part about Hampton Inn and Hilton Garden Inn, is they are owned by Hilton, so I stay there enough to be a Diamond Level member of Hilton Honors, that got me a real nice room at their resort in Hawaii for free, they did hit me for self parking though, oh well. I guess my advice would be to stick with the national business hotels, they will give you more for the buck, and they are likely owned by an upscale chain where you can stay for free on vacation. Also if you tend to stick to one company, you can move up in their frequent guest program. You have never seen a manager jump to resolve a problem, as when a frequent guest had to call the hotline to resolve an issue that the hotel should have handled. The hotline then called the manager and told him to fix it immediately.
Just my .02
D’oh
Homer J
I work for a hotel, and we don’t have those “extra fees”. The cost of the room and tax INCLUDES full hot breakfast, wireless internet, workout room, laundry facilities (you buy the detergent, but the machines are free), free dinner 3 nights out of the week (including free beer and wine), free copying/faxing/printing, full kitchen with everything except for an over (safety precautions..) but two stove top burners, eating utensils (including pots and pans, the works. The highest price I have seen on one of our rooms is $159, but that is a rare find. Normally, depending on if we have negotiated rates with your company, you are looking at $99-$129. Just be nice to all of us that work at the front. We are just trying to do our jobs, which means following orders from above.