777 global mile hound

Although not exactly Hyatt specific
Does anyone find value in these fees with so called added amenities?

I thought these links would make for some interesting reading regarding resort fees

http://www.investopedia.com/articles...esort-fees.asp

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...106-story.html

CloudCoder

Yes, interesting reading. I fully agree that the resort fee should be part of the room rate, due to the fact that the fee is mandatory. Advertising a low room rate, then adding a mandatory fee, is false advertising IMO.

austin_modern

Don't they show you the total cost including everything prior to purchasing a room at all major hotel chains?

azepine00

Yes, after initial fake rate tricks your into getting to purchase or summary page. This practice is indeed deceptive. Anything other than government mandated taxes is the cost of doing business unless its an optional addon.

austin_modern

so, you're saying that you have to approve the charge prior to staying there by officially looking at the total cost???

azepine00

it is beyond me why anyone would support proliferation of hidden charges in everyday life but ymmv of course...

steve64

It doesn't appear in the cost until you're ready to click "confirm" for that specific property.

It's during the "shopping" phase that this is an annoying practice.
When comparing prices, this mandatory fee isn't included. Only after clicking thru a few pages do you see the hotel saying "that comparative price we showed you was just click-bait to lure you to select our hotel. The actual price is $30 a night higher but we're hoping you don't notice and click the 'confirm' button anyhow."

If it were an optional fee that you could pt-out of if you truly only want a place to sleep then it would be fine. But since it's mandatory, then it's deceptive when not including it in the comparative shopping price.

writerguyfl

Since room rates are generally taxed much higher than resort fees, I'm surprised that no local tax collectors have tried to outlaw resort fees. Seems to me that the practice could be viewed as a way for hotels to dodge taxes. Although, I'm not sure that's good for guests. As annoying as resort fees are, if that part of the bill gets placed back in the room rate, the overall bill would increase (in places where the tax rates differ).

I'm also surprised that franchisees haven't complained about how resort fees affect search listings. It's less of a problem if all area hotels have resort fees. But, in mixed-markets the hotels without resort fees are at a competitive disadvantage. If hotel A is $90/night with no resort fee and hotel B is $75/night plus $25 resort fee, that puts hotel A at a disdvantage. If I owned hotel A, I'd be pressing the brand to have mandatory fees shown in the initial search results on the official website.

shaker58

I agree this is usually a bs fee. Paying for for a beach resort room should include lounges and umbrella on the beach. Also hotel status usually gives most of the perks that they charge for resort fee but don't discount it.

Miesque

I hate them as well, really irritates me and when I am booking somewhere like Florida I will make an effort (not always successfully) to try to avoid them. Just add that cost into the reservation rate. They always try to say it includes X,Y,Z and many times its stuff someone who is a Diamond should be getting for free anyway like WiFi. This may be slightly off topic, but I remember when I never had to deal with them in Vegas. Then I think maybe it was during the post economic malaise when travel to places like Vegas got hit and they drop room rates to almost nothing but then resort fees started popping up in the small print.

austin_modern

I'm supportive of people paying attention to when they're booking their flights, hotels, car rentals, etc so they know what they're purchasing and what they arent. Resort fees, checked bag fees, seat assignment fees, etc etc etc arent hard to figure out and ALWAYS are spelled out in the reservation. Some folks just arent bright enough to figure it out, and I dont think we should have every company on earth lower the bar so the room temperature IQs can figure out life.

MSPeconomist

In addition to the resort fees not being subject to taxes in some jurisdictions, I suspect that they're also not only exempt from earning points in some programs but also not eligible for travel agent and chain/booking service commissions.

Some organizations consider resort fees to be personal expenses on business trips and will not reimburse them, although there can be government or corporate rates that don't charge resort fees.

PaulMSN

Extremely supercilious attitude.

The fact remains that it is bait-and-switch -- if you search for hotels on Expedia and choose the lowest-priced one, but then you have to go all the way to payment before finding out that it really isn't, that's pretty much the definition of b&s, and intelligence has nothing to do with the fact that you've just wasted your time for no good reason.

SkiAdcock

On the Marriott forum we've started adding resort fee details (cost, what it includes) via wikis on properties where we know they've got resort fees. Of course that only helps folk who read about the properties on FT, but it does provide some info. It's interesting - some resort fees barely include anything; others include quite a bit, so what you get can really vary.

The big pet peeve (at least on the Marriott forum; not sure about Hyatt) is when the resort fee includes free internet, something that elites get anyway & yet the resort fee isn't discounted because of it.

Cheers.

JackE

I'm supportive of treating ALL respectful customers with respect, without requiring an IQ test.