Guests Ambushed by Undisclosed Resort Fees Take on Hotels in Class Action Lawsuit
Jennifer Billock March 24, 2015
Help is hopefully on the way for hotel guests ambushed by undisclosed resort fees on their bills.
An angry guest at The Palazzo Hotel in Las Vegas is hoping to get the last laugh about unfair resort fee policies at the hotel. According to a lawsuit filed by Benjamin Brin, The Palazzo did not clearly disclose its resort fee during booking, an oversight that left him paying an unexpected extra $28 per night.
Brin’s complaint stems from a growing issue in the U.S. hospitality industry. According to the Chicago Tribune, in 2012 the Federal Trade Commission sent letters to 22 properties warning them that they may be violating the law by not disclosing the resort fee on their website, leading to false advertising and faulty price estimates.
“This rate is not the accurate quote of the nightly cost of the hotel per night,” Brin says in his lawsuit. “Nowhere in the reservation system page, including the price, is the resort fee specified.”
But here’s the problem: Unlike airlines, where the U.S. assesses fines to a manageable number of companies that may be failing to provide an accurate full airfare, the amount of hotel properties is possibly too large to police effectively. There may just be too many hotels for the full disclosure law to be enforced.
The hotel-going public also appears to be against the sneaky practice, using social media to do everything from general gripe about the fees to call for strikes against hotels imposing them.
[Photo: The Palazzo]
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I have booked a room at NYNY, an M-Life hotel in Vegas. I have been warned about the $28--34 resort fee at all their hotels. They're even going to charge it on so-called "comp" night! IIRC Caesar's/ Harrah's group hotels also have it! I suppose it's the result of those 2 conglomerates owning half of Vegas!
This is a major problem. I have learned to research these fees separately because the hotels do not clearly disclose them through all booking channels. In Canada, I have seen a trend where the hotels quote a higher tax rate, but then on the final bill you learn that not all was tax, and some goes to a thing they collect for marketing. And I am not talking about the marketing tax. It is getting out of control, and I hope they eventually get held accountable for it.