Eujeanie

Ok, got the skinny for all of us.

In my case, it is waived because it was all points. Would be waived even if I booked today on all points (similar to any resort). Cash or cash & points booked after December 12 (when it started) will be charged.

It does not have to be used $25 per day - can be used all at once, and IS good for cocktails, too.

The person I spoke with was Gloria in the front office (transferred there by the FD).

LongingForORD

I stayed there on Monday night. I received a blue coupon upon check in for $25 good in any F&B. I stayed one night so I got 1 coupon. The folks next to me at the bar were there all week, so they had a stack. It can be used in the bar (for food or drink), the restaurant or room service. If you get breakfast included in your hhonors benefits, it is still included. So I decided to spend my $25 at the bar had dinner and a drink (watched the game on the big screen), chatted with several folks, had a nice relaxing time. I did not use up all the credit, but it covered the bill. You can not sign the tip to the room, unless you exceed your coupon value, so bring cash for a tip. Alex at the bar is great, friendly, causal and informative. On the other hand, you can sign a tip to the room with the free breakfast.

In compared to the Las Vegas type resort fee, this fee really will cover $25 of any food or beverage. You can use more than 1 coupon at a time. Seems odd, but as long as you know about it before hand, it is fine.

LongingForORD

See above, at check in you will get 3 $25 blue coupons. You can use them all together or one at a time. They can be used as needed, obviously they will not give you back any $'s you don't use, but they seem fairly flexible about them. I did ask the front desk about them, as they are new and still some confusion. Staff seemed a little embarrassed about the fee. You do need to let them know you have them when you order, but no big deal. Enjoy!

Eujeanie

Except that...if you are Gold or Diamond you already get breakfast, so you are really being forced to eat and drink at the hotel, which you may have not otherwise chosen to do in one of the greatest food cities in the world.

jamesteroh

Eujeanie

But how can you stop them? Look what happened to Vegas...and there you don't even get breakfast for your money, most times absolutely nothing useful.

jamesteroh

With all the hotels in NYC hopefully this won't be like Vegas and all the hotels in NYC will start charging it. I agree at least they are giving a food credit instead of like vegas where the only benefits the fee gives are the same ones you would get with your elite status anyway. The F&B credit could be nice for business travelers though who are on a per diem. They are probably able to expense the resort fee and can use the F&B credit to pay for lunch and use the savings to buy a nicer dinner. I wonder if it can be used towards food purchases in the gift shop if there is one or on take out. If it can be used on take out and someone isn't going to eat at the hotel they could buy a nice take out dinner and take it out and give it to a homeless person

The resort fees Hilton have started charging has cost them all my personal business in vegas. HGVC used to get all my personal stays and since they started charging it I have been staying at Harrah's since Harrah's waives it for their diamonds. I still use the HGVC sometimes on Karen for business stays since they don't charge it at that HGVC if I am using my corporate rate. I wonder if some NYC properties will start waiving it on corporate rates as well to keep those businesses happy instead of risking it going to another chain

pinniped

Thanks for the heads-up: I hadn't considered this, and I suspect you're right: that's where a lot of people will probably use the coupons, even though breakfast is probably the single worst value in a hotel (if you have to pay for it). Lots of people in NYC for tourism, in that part of town, are going to shows at night and will assume they won't use them then. So breakfast is kind of all that's left...

I had resigned myself to the fact that the $25 would be happening, and was willing to spend it on cocktails. (Not a great value either, but with this group I'm traveling with a pre-dinner cocktail at the hotel often happens.) But I'm not going to take a chance on a wait for breakfast - that's simply never OK at a freaking Doubletree. I'll probably head back over to one of my HGIs or Hiltons on the east side that I've had good luck with, and they have no resort fees. Yet.

jamesteroh

The breakfast at DT Times Square is the best Hilton breakfast I've had in NYC. But now that I think about it the price is a lot more than $25 a person and if there are two or more people in the room than I'm sure non-status and silver aren't going to want to pay up the additional money for additional guests. The breakfast is great for free but nowhere close to being worth what they charge.

My stays there are normally only award stays and not paid stays and I am hopping like with the resort fee they waive it on award stays. If not I'll just use it for cocktails instead of letting it go to waste.

IIRC they don't have room service here any longer and I know they don't at the Midtown Hilton. I think it's absurd these properties are eliminating room service and then charging this fee.

Eujeanie

They are waiving the "urban destination fee" for all points stays, but not for Cash & points. We are early risers so usually beat the breakfast crowds no matter where we stay.

pinniped

I think that's pretty typical in HH-land, isn't it? Go pure award, and there's no resort fee. Go C&P, even a *tiny* bit of cash and mostly points, and you're on the hook for the fee.

Something I probably would not know if I didn't read this forum. C&P at Starwood can be a fantastic award (better than a regular award), whereas at HH it's just a math problem...and one with a hidden fee if you're talking about a resort or someone like this DT with one of these junk fees.

jamesteroh

I've never been charged the resort fee on any award stay but the only two properties I have been at with resort fees were the Biltmore in Phoenix and the Bentley in Miami. The Bentley used to waive it on all stays for diamonds but I was told that Hilton corporate told them they couldn't waive it for diamonds only and they had to charge it to everyone (not sure why corporate cares).

Not sure how it will work in this case since they are calling it an urban fee instead of a resort fee and giving a F&B credit with it.

If all Hiltons in NYC start charging this fee, I'll factor it into the room cost and Hyatt could end up with a lot of my NYC stays if they don't charge it. Hilton gets most of my NYC stays because of the location and price, but if you factor in a resort fee, Hyatt could end up be cheaper.

Eujeanie

Did you miss my post #676 ?

jamesteroh

Hopefully the info is accurate. It's not unusual for a property to give out info on the info that is incorrect. Look at the Tropicana in Vegas. Their policy on breakfast and the resort fees for diamonds seems to change every week.

pinniped

Given the newness of this particular scam, and the confusion on property, I for one would like to see continued updates over time as FT'ers stay here - even if they simply support Eujeanie's experience.

New York's attorney general has, in some cases in the past, taken a consumer perspective against some types of scams. It's not out of the question that they don't push back on this one. I also see tons of NYC properties *not* charging bogus fees, so it's possible that this little scam will simply die on its own as it doesn't really take hold citywide. (Is that naive of me to think? Perhaps... )

At least the DT's fee *can* be lossless to some guests - ones who actually use it. That doesn't make it any more ethical or less scammy in my opinion, but I was looking at a Marriott fee in NYC that looked like $25/day and the F&B credit $25 per stay.

Props to Hyatt if they have, so far, resisted this fee. (I also haven't looked at Starwoods...)