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Senator Introduces Bill Against Hidden Resort Fees
Ryan Boyd February 26, 2016
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-MO, has introduced a bill to prevent hotels from charging hidden resort fees without disclosing the costs to guests beforehand. Last summer, the former Chairman of the Consumer Protection Subcommittee surveyed hotel guests about their experiences with being surprised by hidden resort fees, and McCaskill reports that she got hundreds of responses through a form on her website. The proposed legislation would ban advertising a hotel room that does not include all required fees, and would also give the Federal Trade Commission the authority to enforce the proposed law.
To read more on this story, go to USA Today.
[Photo: AP]
I'm against government intervention on such. However, showing the fee isn't the disclosure you might think. For many who don't travel to these type of hotels often it's often not understood that the fee is mandatory. Many reasonably assume if they don't use the pool and similar they will not have to pay. I rarely use anything but a room even on vacation and I will not pay such a fee.
Resort fees, fuel surcharges, and other mandatory "fees" need to go away and get put back into the product price. It's not like users can opt out of these fees like baggage fees (although I'd love to see those go away as well). It's just flat-out deceptive.
I see things like this every once in a while. But...I mean where are these places that don't disclose them but instead tack them on at the end of your trip? Every place I've ever looked at, at least within the last 3-4 years, has specifically disclosed any extra fees. Go on any booking site right now and look at hotels on the strip in Las Vegas, or resort beach type places, and they'll say "$X per night, not including a daily $15 resort fee." I'm willing to bet those people who got allegedly "hidden" fees either had the place booked by a travel agent (who failed to mention the resort fee), or they just went on Orbitz and didn't read all the print (because the fees aren't even in the fine print, they're right there in the open). If anything, how about hotels just automatically include the resort fee in the price? If a room normally goes for $110 per night, just advertise it as $125 instead of $110 plus resort fee.