Originally Posted by
Texas Booster
Is this the Marriott next to the convention center?
If so, these fees has become pretty standard. Convention centers in union states charge a small fortune for drayage fees.
The hotels charge these fees so that convention vendors do not send hundreds of pounds of freight to the hotel, bypassing the convention center fees.
We may not like it, but the hotels need to protect their employees from being used as beasts of burden, incurring workers comp and excess turnover. Not everyone tips the hotel staff anymore ...
I will have lighter items delivered to the hotel for a convention and just pay the fees. Heavier stuff, like the 5,000 catalogs we gave out at InfoCOMM, go straight to the convention center.
It's become much more common than just convention center hotels and is the norm in many cities. Hotels contract out their business center operation (even though it appears to be seamless in-house) and the fees are the contractor's revenue. Same thing with $1 photocopies and the like.
While OP's post is clearly about personal packages, the bulk of shipments to hotels are likely business travellers who expense the charge.
I have no problem with any fee which is disclosed and is optional. My concern is with resort and other facility fees which aren't optional and therefore are effectively part of the room rate.