Excerpt from Seattle Times
Robert Kraus encountered the worst junk fee ever on a recent visit to Washington, D.C. That’s when his hotel added a surprise $20 “Daily Mandatory Destination Charge” to his bill.
A Daily Mandatory what?
Yeah, that’s just a fancy new word for a resort fee. Kraus’ surcharge covered food and beverage credit, bike rental and “free” internet. But Kraus, a meeting planner from Miami, says this one was different: The hotel had cleverly repackaged it as a mandatory tax.
“They said they had no control over the fee,” he says. “I pointed out there is no mandatory destination tax and that they can very much drop this ridiculous fee.”
Those annoying hotel charges were supposed to disappear after the government declared war on junk fees earlier this year. Instead, hotels have returned fire in the junk fee war by adding surprising new extras. Customers are fighting them in the courts and Congress, but there are also ways of killing the fees one at a time.
The average hotel now charges a mandatory daily resort fee of $26, up 3% from last year, according to Randy Greencorn, publisher of ResortFeeChecker.com.
“Hotels have gotten creative in their terminology,” he says. “A resort fee is sometimes called a destination fee, administrative fee, cleaning fee, service fee or a utility fee. Some hotels now charge towel fees, bedsheet fees and concierge fees. These are all mandatory fees on top of the room rate and taxes.”
Wait, aren’t hotel fees going away?
Hang on. Didn’t the Biden administration declare war on junk fees like Kraus’ daily mandatory destination charge earlier this year? Yes, it did. But instead of backing off and quoting an all-in rate, many hotels have doubled down on the extras. Even proposed legislation that would ban resort fees has not deterred the hotel industry from piling on more fees.
“Some hotels are continuing to drive up the average daily room rate using hidden fees,” says Tim Hentschel, CEO of HotelPlanner.com. The most common fees this summer have been cleaning surcharges and resort fees — ahem, I mean, destination fees.
“Sometimes the fee is verbally disclosed to the guest at check-in, but other times a guest might not see it unless they look closely at their checkout invoice,” he adds.
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