I just made a telephone reservation at the Hyatt in Sydney, Australia.
Just before I ended the call, I was advised if I use a credit card to pay my hotel bill, I will be assessed a credit card processing fee.
Prior to calling Hyatt reservations, I tried to make the reservation with Hyatt online. As I was finalizing the reservation, a notice popped on the top of the screen and said that if I use a credit card to pay my hotel bill, I will be assessed a credit card processing fee.
I thought the notice was an error so I signed out and signed in again to redo the reservation. However, the same notice appeared.
I never heard of being charged a processing fee to use a credit card to pay a hotel bill.
Does hotel management in Australia think that guests walk around with currency to pay their hotel bills and other expenses?
In today's world, credit card payments are norm. I have never previously heard of such a scam.
In my opinion, it would be better for the credit card fee to be included in the room rate as it is in all other hotels I used in different countries. Adding the fee to a customers' bill is petty and unprofessional.
Here is an Australian article that discusses credit card fees that are added to bills if customers and guests pay by credit card. Apparently a new law was passed last year that prohibits merchants from charging more than the actually processing fee the merchant is charged by whichever credit card processor they use.
EFTPOS, credit card surcharges: Excessive fees to be banned across all businesses - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
As I said above, this is a tacky procedure.