txirish

That's fine if you know exactly which property you want to stay at. That approach doesn't scale if you are headed for a city with lots of options. If you want a map view of all brands and properties with prices, you'll have to go to Kayak, Booking.com, etc. If you want to take advantage of Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts special offers (occasionally amazing deals on spectacular properties), you have to search at the Amex website. I've never had a problem booking via these sites, though often I'll check the brand site, too, after I've decided on a property. It's just unfortunate that the resort fees aren't part of the published price and the hotels that use them force you to do more research to make the comparison accurate. Even on the hotel sites themselves the fee may not be obvious at a glance.

I agree that parking fees have some of the same characteristics as resort fees. For an upcoming trip, I was weighing renting a car vs. Uber. I noticed the hotel had a $44 per day parking fee. (Nearby public lots were $10.) That doubled the cost of the rental option. I fully expect hotels in dense urban areas to charge for parking at a rate that reflects the cost in that city, but I've seen hotels in lower density suburban areas impose unexpectedly high fees, too. Again, you've got to read the fine print.

squiddy

It's hardly just Marriott adding / hiding "resort fees" - here's a Hotwire booking, advertised as $173/night - until the "Tax recovery charges and fees and resort fees are kicked in which increases the price by nearly $100. And what's the resort fee cover? Does it include a credit for food/drink? It doesn't say - just that the hotel charges ist.




Also, note the "tax recovery charges and fee" are rolled in together. Actual taxes need to be disclosed individually - don't bury your service charges in a government tax.

Priceline, hotels.com, etc, etc also do this - do a search, they show the "daily rate" - but fees aren't disclosed until you book.

Airbnb *used* to be egregious - you'd see a list of properties, by price, and then discover the $100 night property you were looking at had a $450 "cleaning fee", while the $200/night property might've only had a $75 cleaning fee. I stopped using it over that - it was just too frustrating (it's like the Ebay sellers that sell a $50 item for $1, but charge $60 in shipping and handling.)

Anyway, Airbnb changed to disclose the total cost on the search page.

Something I wish *all* booking sites would do - show the *total* price on the search results page, so I don't have to go into listing after listing to see what pricing scam each property is pulling.

EuropeanPete

pinniped

How would they know if you go to a hotel or elsewhere? (I guess delving into how all these parking apps work is a bit OMNI, but I'm curious since the parking apps have really been taking off in the past 2-3 years.)

Oddly enough, I'm posting this from a suburban hotel (a Doubletree in Irvine) that kinda fits your description. It's nowhere near anything but office parks and has its own surface lot, yet it charges for parking. That does seem like a cheap money grab, as a hotel like this in most parts of the U.S. would typically allow their guests to park as part of their rate. We just Ubered here so it doesn't affect me, but I can see where a guest would show up here with a car and be surprised. They went to the trouble of installing gates to their parking lot...just comes off a bit like a jerk move, but I guess this is a different topic. If you take an Uber here, you are not charged a parking fee.

Sweet...let's throw all of the fraudsters in the lawsuit. (The AG probably started with Marriott because they're big and have a big DC-area presence that will attract media attention.)

This seems like a reasonable place for the legal proceedings to end up. Get the total price listed on the first search results page, as is done with airfares. We can still rail against bogus fees the way with do with bogus airlines fees (YQ, etc.), but if the ability to use them to cloak total costs and deceive customers is much more limited, that would be a win. Some chains will probably still use them to trick award users - the way airlines do with YQ. And maybe some won't...if the ability to trick the bulk of guests with the fees becomes vastly more limited, then the incentive to even use them will go way down.

nacho

Yep the hotel is in Irvine. Exactly nowhere near anything! I was charged $16 at Denver Marriott Tech Center when there are tons of empty office lot nearby - they all have signs saying not for hotel guests, so you know what's going on. $16 is ok but $32?! Also why a parking lot has 3 different prices? With the cheapest being 1/4 of the hotel guest's price?

Parking fee like the one I mentioned overpriced parking/resort fee/destination fee are all money grabbers. The latest one was a $5 cleaning fee for a one night stay at a Staybridge Suites in NYC.

This is how the app works, you paid via CC/paypal and then they give you a QR code. You drive to the lot and take a ticket (usual usual), then you need to find a person to let them scan your QR code from your phone. I guess if the attendant sees you walk with your bags to the hotel then they think you stay there.

Marriott doesn't waive resort fee on award stays so that's a way for them to get $ from non-paying guests.

moondog

Are you kidding?! People would happily let this thread die if we didn't care about the issue. Nobody is forcing you to read it.

C17PSGR

Parking isn't the same as a resort fee.

I don't have to park, but I do have to pay the resort fee.

And, like rental car companies, I suspect hotels are seeing decreases in parking revenue. I'll almost always take an Uber, even to places like a hotel in Irvine as it is cheaper than the combined cost of car rental and parking. Not to mention the time savings from not having to schlep to/from rental cars, getting gas, and looking for parking.

But, not matter where you search, the listing will come up something like

Hotel X $150 per night
Hotel Y $160 per night

But until I click on the individual listing, I won't know whether Hotel X has a resort fee, and if so, how much or whether the total cost of Hotel X is actually higher than Hotel Y. That's been prohibited in the airline world for years.

Curious -- if I search from Marriott.co.uk -- or another Euro site, how does it show?

jrpallante

The so-called resort fee is the most insidious FU fee ever forced upon the traveling public. Looking at rooms in Vegas next week, Circus Circus is advertising a room rate of $21, but the FU fee is $36! That is absurd and potentially deceitful, though I must admit that most sites disclose the fee up front, even if they use a smaller font. Personally, I refuse to pay a resort fee, even if that means paying a little more at another hotel. That is my general opinion as a consumer, but I wonder if there might be some hidden benefits for the hotel owner and/or the consumer. For example, is the resort fee subject to hotel occupancy taxes? If not, then you might be better off paying $50 for the room + $50 for the resort fee, instead of $100 + $0. As for the hotel owner, do they pay franchise fees based on room revenue only?

C17PSGR

Taxation depends on the state
Hotel owners pay a fee to Expedia based on the room rate, so they save by allocating part of it to a resort fee.

arlflyer

My original comment was a bit of a joke - and certainly no one is forcing me to read it.

However, I do think that there is a legitimate argument that this thread at this point has little to do with Marriott, and perhaps belongs in a different forum as a general discussion of resort fees and related litigation.

moondog

Ah, got you. I suppose moving this to tb, and maybe adding the Hilton thread, might make sense. A lot of people on FT hate this practice and some of the most egregious properties are not affiliated with Hyatt, Hilton, IHG, or Marriott.

pinniped

I've long suspected that resort fees were also defrauding travel agents, but I don't know that business so wasn't really sure. Same goes for corporate discount clients. I suspect giant firms can negotiate out of resort fees but midsize ones probably negotiate their rates - and then still get hit with bogus fees on the back end. But again, this isn't an area I have ever worked directly with, other than being a user of such rates.

I do know that in some cases airline YQ has been used to defraud their corporate clients.

C17PSGR

The OTA's know about this. Booking was going to start charging their commission on the room rate plus resort rate rather than just room rate. Expedia said they would just charge for the room rate. Booking backed down. So ... I wouldn't call this defrauding travel agents.

moondog

Do you understand that, unlike the "booking tools" many of us employ when researching hotels (not necessarily for booking, mind you), Marriott's website does not provide a picture of the complete market? Furthermore, in spite of the Marriott best rate guarantee, OTAs occasionally undercut marriott.com.

Do you agree that it would be more transparent -- as well as better manners -- if Marriott provided all in rates on all channels, including in every mention of rates on Marriott.com?

nacho

They have robbed enough to back down.

$21 room plus $36 resort fee is just made me speechless - it's simply wrong because you'll never be able to just pay $21 to get a room = false advertising. I remember I paid $3 at Circus Circus in 2009 (at that time it wasn't disclosed as I got it from HW) and I was already thinking "what the hell?" $36 is like a 12x increase in 10 years! I don't need local calls as I have my phone with me. I then found out that the $3 is at the low end at that time but still - the principle is wrong. What is included in the $36 resort fee?

I have been avoiding these hotels ever since. I don't want to be close to the strip.