dtremit

To me the difference is in making comparisons. Obviously there are some variations between locations (say, if you cross between two neighboring cities), but if you see two $200 hotels in a search engine, they're going to cost the same after taxes.

With resort fees, one might end up being $40+ higher a night despite being displayed at the same price.

myperks

Tino

That is not true at all. Priceline sends me breathlessly titled emails weekly: VEGAS FOR $15! ORLANDO FOR $29! RENTAL CARS FOR $9!

What is way worse to me is now that Priceline has included condo rentals, they will advertise $75 a night in the search listings next to hotels, but after cleaning fees, booking fees, taxes and other odds and ends, it can be a $250+ room. That makes the resort fees look like a rounding error.

st3

I'm going to use some of my screenshots from another post on the same topic. Bottom line is that if the fee isn't optional it should be in the base rate. Otherwise it isn't displayed when you're searching for the hotel in basically every search engine and even on Bonvoy itself.




You have to click through to see the charge

Doesn't show up on Trivago either!

Flying for Fun

It is included in the Taxes & charges below the room rate on booking.com in the results screen. The sum of the two figures is the final price. No click necessary.

James

GrayAnderson

In re all of this, I think VIA Rail (up in Canada) has a good solution where you can search for rail fares with or without tax included.

(This is particularly useful since there are some quirks hidden in the system that theoretically allow you to cause tax not to be assessed if your reservation meets specific conditions).

dtremit

Nope -- not in the search results there either. You have to click through to the specific hotel, and it's still excluded from the total price.

Muerz

enggeol

I have recently been booking hotels in the US for a 3 week visit and specifically sought out hotels that were transparent in their charges and without RESORT fees. The principle of this charge is wrong, unless the hotel is actually a resort i.e. it has a theme park or similar attached to it for which you get free entry for your resort fee. Similarly in the UK I have recently bought a new car and some dealers are starting to try to charge an administration fee of £100 - 250 plus 20% tax for registering the car and getting it taxed! I walked out of one such dealership and told them why! Next we will be going to supermarkets and there will be a fee for parking and getting served at the till!!

Flying for Fun

Yip! Below the price in the search results the resort fee is included in the Taxes & Charges. The sum of the two is the final price.



Before confirmation, you can get a breakdown of the Taxes & charges which lists the resort fee as a separate item.

James

damon88

Sorry. Just saw this MG. It actually is a wonderful value. I can't verify if the Salon credit is every day. Even though I have planned to use it I never do. And I have only visited the museums once during each visit. But I have definitely used the Food & Beverage and Laundry Dry Cleaning every day.

On both of our last 2 visits they offered to waive the fee for me. The first time because it was instituted after I made my reservation, the second time because they now will waive for any 5+ night stays. On both occasions I opted to keep the resort fee because I knew we would come out ahead.

And that is the only time in my life I would ever have kept an optional resort fee. LOL

KRSW

I thought about starting another thread, but figured it's close enough.

So I just stayed at a property where they had a "Daily Mandatory Charge" which works out to 10% of the room rate, which was not shown at the top of the room rates like all of the other Marriott properties in the area. To add insult to injury, they also separately charge a "Daily Mandatory Charge" on parking fees as well. The front desk agent tried telling me that this was for government-imposed taxes, BUT those were billed separately on the bill. I asked for a manager on duty, who showed up and was completely unapologetic about it and borderline rude. I showed her the Marriott.com website right there in front of her and showed how the other properties in the area disclosed this and how theirs did not.

Anyone have any suggestions on where to take this?

dsauch

Name and shame

KRSW

I will in due time, I promise. I don't want the hotel in question to change their website before the proper eyeballs can see (and hopefully punish) the offending property. When I get to the office on Monday I'll post screen shots & a copy of the folio for everyone to see.

Tanic

Attorney General of the state where the hotel is located. Some AGs are doing something about deceptive consumer practices.