Originally Posted by
Sopwith
My biggest beef is when I see things like a $3.50 charge listed in the invoice as "DMF". What is DMF? I ask. "Destination marketing fee. It's a government tax we have to charge."
On further investigation I find that the local government spends money promoting tourism in their region, charges a fee (or tax) to the beneficiaries of their efforts, i.e. the hotels, who then charge it back to the customers the fee has attracted to their hotel.
This lies somewhere between perverse and contemptuous.
You sometimes discover later that these taxes are in fact optional for the visitor.
Personally I very much mind when the hotel adds a charitable donation to the charity of their choice to my bill without asking. I choose the charities to which I contribute and I normally do say in a way that's tax deductible for me, so that I can contribute more and share the cost with my government.