It would seem to me to be illegal to charge hotel taxes on the gift card portion of this deal. When paying for a fundraiser that includes a meal, you can only deduct the non-meal portion of the donation on your tax return so how is this any different?

Not worth the hassle of fighting this but it shows that it is wrong to charge hotel taxes on the gift card. After all, sales taxes aren't even charged on gift cards.

This "deal" seems like a total ripoff to me.