I'm half-thinking the union line is BS. Maybe I'm just cynical. A union contract between a hotel and its bellhops that requires a $1 fee for bags, thus taking money straight out of the bellhops' pockets in the form of lesser tips, angry customers, and people who just won't use the services out of principle? What kind of union would fight for that fee?

Considering hotels all over the world who don't have unionized bellhops don't have the fee, it doesn't sound like the hotel industry itself has standardized around the fee. (Although I could see it as a means of trying to get out of the bag-storage business entirely, much like the airlines have certainly freed up cargo space under the plane with their baggage fees.)

I know nothing about hotel unions, but I'm having a hard time blaming them for this fee.