Originally Posted by
bdschobel
Self-parking fees at remote locations (and resort fees, too, but don't get me started) are just sneaky ways to raise room rates without alerting people to the fact. There really should be a law against such practices. Note that nearly everyone has a car at these places. It's not like staying in Manhattan!
I have something like 1700 Marriott nights (and hundreds more at other chains), and still this sort of thing really gets me going. I should be accustomed to it by now, but I'm not. It's sneaky and outrageous.
Bruce
How would you draft such a law? It seems like it would be almost impossible to differentiate between fees that make people mad and fees that are legitimate (like pay per view television).
Fees like this don't bother me as much as they used to. Marriott is going to collect that $30 in some form regardless, so I'd rather see a $30/night parking fee than see rooms go up $25 a night for everyone. If I happen to not have a car, then good for me....I used one less service and have one less fee to pay. If I do have a car, then I pay the $30 that otherwise would have been incorporated in to my room rate. When I'm busy I tend to use very few amenities on my stays, so my room rate is effectively subsidizes your use of the CL, gym, free breakfast, newspaper, pool, etc.
The obvious exception here in this specific example would be hotel in locales that have hard (and real) costs to the hotel for parking vehicles, such as NYC, Chicago, etc. I love the $52/night parking at the JW Chicago.