"Extra person" charges, especially on award stays
So, I'm trying to book for two adults and two children on Maui for this summer and pretty much every legacy SPG hotel is adding a $178 per night charge on points bookings as an "extra person" fee. It looks like it's mostly the legacy SPG properties that are doing it. Plus, all the HI taxes are imposed on the extra person fee. It also applies to cash bookings, it seems. The booking process is a little bit deceptive too. So, for example, in a search for the Maui Westin for 2A and 2C, the first screen shows me a rate of $358 per night, but then when you click through, the "extra person" fee of $178 plus all the taxes and the resort fees makes the total a whopping $641 per night, and you actually have to click on a drop down menu to see it broken down. For a points booking it works out to 50,000 points plus $239 per night.
I've seen charges for extra adults, but this seems like a major impact for families trying to use points for bookings or for cash bookings for that matter. It is what it is, you pay it or you don't. But I was surprised that in doing some searches here on FT it doesn't seem to get discussed very much. Maybe I missed a thread, but all I could find was a thread talking about a similar issue at some Canadian hotels.