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Washington DC Attorney General sues Marriott over "deceptive resort fees"

Washington DC Attorney General sues Marriott over "deceptive resort fees"

Old Jul 30, 2019, 6:20 am
  #136  
 
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Originally Posted by nacho
Instead of destination fees, some hotels in SoCal charges like hell for parking - I was looking to use my 40k cert but then the FS hotel I looked at charges $32 parking, and then you can get the very same spot for $7.95 from a parking app (the condition is that you can't be an overnight guest at the hotel). It's totally ridiculous and it's basically telling people that you will have to pay the insane parking as a fee in order to stay at the hotel.
You do not have to have a car. It is your choice. They are not saying you have to have a car to stay there.
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Old Jul 30, 2019, 7:30 am
  #137  
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Originally Posted by nacho
Instead of destination fees, some hotels in SoCal charges like hell for parking - I was looking to use my 40k cert but then the FS hotel I looked at charges $32 parking, and then you can get the very same spot for $7.95 from a parking app (the condition is that you can't be an overnight guest at the hotel). It's totally ridiculous and it's basically telling people that you will have to pay the insane parking as a fee in order to stay at the hotel.
If the $8 fee doesn't allow overnight parking, then it's not really the same as the $32 fee. But keep looking - I've found more-reasonable overnight rates via parking apps for Chicago and NYC, so wouldn't surprise me if something similar exists in LA/SD.

A lot of the sub-$10 offers (in Chicago, anyway) are for in after 5PM out by 2AM. They want the spots empty for their regular day clients showing up at 8AM.

Originally Posted by hotelboy
Or you could just go to the hotel's official website. It will list it right there. No need to use multiple shady online travel sites where you end up getting screwed when you think you are saving money.
Hotel sites intentionally hide these bogus fees. We've already established that upthread.

Side note: I have a room next week at the New York Marriott East Side, booked yesterday, entirely with no mention of a resort fee at any point during the booking process. Using a major travel portal whose legitimacy no one would question. Yet I know from Flyertalk that this is a property where this scam exists. It will be interesting to see if they attempt to slip it onto my bill at checkout. In previous stays, I almost always have a couple drinks at the bar so it'll be a wash either way (the $25 resort fee covers $25 in food/bev), but I'm curious what they'll try to pull.
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Old Jul 30, 2019, 8:01 am
  #138  
 
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Originally Posted by Antarius
They're the biggest.
Looks like Nebraska is filing suit against Hilton.
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Old Jul 30, 2019, 8:11 am
  #139  
 
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Originally Posted by pinniped
If the $8 fee doesn't allow overnight parking, then it's not really the same as the $32 fee. But keep looking - I've found more-reasonable overnight rates via parking apps for Chicago and NYC, so wouldn't surprise me if something similar exists in LA/SD.

A lot of the sub-$10 offers (in Chicago, anyway) are for in after 5PM out by 2AM. They want the spots empty for their regular day clients showing up at 8AM.



Hotel sites intentionally hide these bogus fees. We've already established that upthread.

Side note: I have a room next week at the New York Marriott East Side, booked yesterday, entirely with no mention of a resort fee at any point during the booking process. Using a major travel portal whose legitimacy no one would question. Yet I know from Flyertalk that this is a property where this scam exists. It will be interesting to see if they attempt to slip it onto my bill at checkout. In previous stays, I almost always have a couple drinks at the bar so it'll be a wash either way (the $25 resort fee covers $25 in food/bev), but I'm curious what they'll try to pull.
The official hotel websites do not hide them. You again are using a booking tool other than that. It clearly shows on Marriott's website.
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Old Jul 30, 2019, 8:22 am
  #140  
 
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Originally Posted by HNLbasedFlyer
If it becomes a Federal Case other States can join in.

And this isn't even in a State Court - it is in a District Court.

To really get the resort fees in the room rate - this really comes down to creating a Federal Law or the FTC making a ruling such as they did in airline pricing.
I mean if you manage to get a quorum of states in agreement on anything, that would force the government to make change.
Understanding federal vs state authority is its own problem, but get enough states on board with an idea and there you have have it.
The problem is how often can you get many differing bodies to agree on anything...
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Old Jul 30, 2019, 8:56 am
  #141  
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Originally Posted by hotelboy
The official hotel websites do not hide them. You again are using a booking tool other than that. It clearly shows on Marriott's website.
That's *only* your first presentation of rates if you search, precisely, for "New York Marriott East Side".

If you search for "New York", "NYC", "LGA", or anything else New-York-ish, you are shown a list of hotels and rates that do *not* include the resort fee. The resort fee is hidden.

But of course you know this, and you know that this is the entire purpose of these fraudulent fees.

Welcome to the thread.

EDIT: I stand corrected. I can't get the Marriott site to show me the resort fee screen first even when I type in "New York Marriott East Side". It still shows me a rate that does not exist. Perhaps a newer website behavior, because it used to skip the screen with many properties (and bogus fees purposely hidden) if you typed in an entire property name.
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Old Jul 30, 2019, 11:56 am
  #142  
 
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Originally Posted by pinniped
That's *only* your first presentation of rates if you search, precisely, for "New York Marriott East Side".

If you search for "New York", "NYC", "LGA", or anything else New-York-ish, you are shown a list of hotels and rates that do *not* include the resort fee. The resort fee is hidden.

But of course you know this, and you know that this is the entire purpose of these fraudulent fees.

Welcome to the thread.

EDIT: I stand corrected. I can't get the Marriott site to show me the resort fee screen first even when I type in "New York Marriott East Side". It still shows me a rate that does not exist. Perhaps a newer website behavior, because it used to skip the screen with many properties (and bogus fees purposely hidden) if you typed in an entire property name.
Dont bother - between this and the St. Regis Aspen thread, this guys either trolling or he owns one of these sleazy hotels. As an aside - the $25 destination fee includes the NYC Experience?? What does that even mean? New York wouldnt be right outside the hotels door if you didnt pay that fee? Really, thats borderline insulting.

And yes, the hotels are at least partially responsible for the fees being hidden on OTAs. Theyre choosing to game the OTAs search engines by advertising a lower rate with a hidden mandatory fee, and Im sure the major players have some say with how their listings are presented with the major booking portals.
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Old Jul 30, 2019, 1:41 pm
  #143  
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Anyone who defends this practice must either be an employee of Marriott or have significant holdings in their retirement accounts. If the fee is mandatory and not going to a government entity it should 100% be included in the searchable-advertised price. It just so happens that I was searching recently for a vacation in November and came across this...

First page of search results


You only see it once you select the property in particular



Not shown on Trivago
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Old Jul 30, 2019, 2:48 pm
  #144  
 
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Easy enough to google "hotels in Las Vegas with no resort fees" and stay at one of those. Admittedly, their number is diminishing.
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Old Jul 30, 2019, 5:08 pm
  #145  
 
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Originally Posted by hotelboy
You do not have to have a car. It is your choice. They are not saying you have to have a car to stay there.
This is Southern California. Of course you have to have a car.
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Old Jul 30, 2019, 11:34 pm
  #146  
 
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While they're at it, can they also sue hotels that respond to hotel reviews with boilerplate "We're sorry that you had this experience, I will review this incident with my staff so that this will not happen again. We strive to provide the best service..."

Translation:

"We're sorry that you had this experience, I will lie about reviewing this incident with my staff so that you feel better about us responding. We strive to deceive everyone reading these reviews to make them think that we actually do anything about the negative ones."

If anything, THAT is a deceptive practice.
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Old Jul 31, 2019, 12:49 am
  #147  
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Originally Posted by booatx
Looks like Nebraska is filing suit against Hilton.
at the end of the day all you need is one lawsuit to be successful in any one jurisdiction against any one hotel chain....things will flow a lot easier from there....
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Old Jul 31, 2019, 3:08 am
  #148  
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Originally Posted by pinniped
If the $8 fee doesn't allow overnight parking, then it's not really the same as the $32 fee. But keep looking - I've found more-reasonable overnight rates via parking apps for Chicago and NYC, so wouldn't surprise me if something similar exists in LA/SD.

A lot of the sub-$10 offers (in Chicago, anyway) are for in after 5PM out by 2AM. They want the spots empty for their regular day clients showing up at 8AM.



Hotel sites intentionally hide these bogus fees. We've already established that upthread.

Side note: I have a room next week at the New York Marriott East Side, booked yesterday, entirely with no mention of a resort fee at any point during the booking process. Using a major travel portal whose legitimacy no one would question. Yet I know from Flyertalk that this is a property where this scam exists. It will be interesting to see if they attempt to slip it onto my bill at checkout. In previous stays, I almost always have a couple drinks at the bar so it'll be a wash either way (the $25 resort fee covers $25 in food/bev), but I'm curious what they'll try to pull.
It DOES allow overnight parking - it's designed for "airport parking" - I don't see why a hotel guest has to pay 4x the rate! It makes sense if the hotel is located inside DC, SF downtown or something like that but this hotel is not even located near LA downtown, it's in OC and not even by a beach or anything.

I used those apps in DC when I needed a spot close to Smithsonian during weekdays and they work great. I bought the parking until 8pm and they gave me until 2am (not that I need it for that long).

Last edited by nacho; Jul 31, 2019 at 3:15 am
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Old Jul 31, 2019, 3:11 am
  #149  
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Originally Posted by hotelboy
You do not have to have a car. It is your choice. They are not saying you have to have a car to stay there.
Originally Posted by Twickenham
This is Southern California. Of course you have to have a car.
The hotel in question doesn't connect directly with any public transit, an airport is close by but it's not branded as an airport hotel. The hotel is obviously trying to squeeze $ out of guests because how come the same parking lot charge $7.95 if you don't stay at the hotel and $32 if you are a guest?
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Old Jul 31, 2019, 5:34 am
  #150  
 
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Well, this is going to be a fun thread to monitor for the next 17 years while the suit crawls its way through the legal system. In the interim, we'll get to enjoy a myriad of table-pounding rants, inane diatribes, and hyper-fallacies from every armchair attorney, self-trained economist, and anti/pro-regulation crazy that the corners of the internet have to offer. Looking forward to it!

(Translation: Mods, please lock)
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