I'm not too fond of laundry charges.

Phone calls(local) made in Europe were pretty high.

Internet charges in Beijing were pretty high at the hotel business center.

Mini bar charges are quite funny.

(edited by DaDOK)

In all fairness, the taxes you mention are not the fault of the hotel, but of the gov't jurisdiction the hotel is located in. And, these taxes are depressingly common and most egregious. The politicians figure that most hotel users are not residents, cannot vote one way or the other. And it is an easy way to raise revenue without hitting the people who live there.

That goes the same for car rental -- lots of surcharges there, too.



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Da DOK

Reagrding outrageous charges for long distance phone calls --

I worked at a hotel in the 1970s. When someone make a LD call through the hotel, they were charged person-to-person rates(the most expensive), plus a surcharge that varied from 50% to 100%, depending on how we felt about the guest (not cool, I know, but that's the way it was).

Maybe things have changed and charges are more standardized, and the rates are generally cheapter now than then -- but the fact is that it is a money-maker for the hotel. I have seen a few hotels advertise that they add a 50% surcharge, so I imagine the other hotels do the same. The bottom line, NEVER place a call through the hotel. As mentioned before, get a phone card or even use your own home LD company (3rd party call) and you will still come out ahead.

In Monterrey, CA, we were charged $120 for internet access of less than 1 hour. When we complained, they removed 50% of the charge, but it was infuriating, but it helps to get to vent here!

/edit

I seem to recall paying as much as 25% room tax between the various levies. This is not painless to the hotel or the traveller. Like all taxes, it is taken into account by the "invisible hand", meaning the hotel gets less of a return, fewer people stay and they stay for briefer periods, etc.

The Richmond VA Hilton has a $1/day charge for the room safe.

I told them to remove the charge or remove the safe. (The removed the charge.)

IMO, charges fall into 2 categories:

There are things like parking, minibar, and per-call phone charges, which you can avoid by not using the service.

Then there are things like resort fees, safe charges, and newspaper fees, which are added to every bill, or else require you to explicitly opt-out or complain. These are more insidious - if they charge it to everyone, then they ought to be part of the room rate.

The energy surcharges from a few years back were especially annoying. Even after energy prices went way down, the surcharges kept in place.

I've had a huge bill for phone charges in Europe, even calling card calls. (In one case I only had to go online for a few minutes, so I thought it would be cheaper to use dialup than the high speed access. WRONG)

A coworker got dinged a few hundred dollars for local calls at a hotel in Chicago. (Call surcharge + extra minute charges)

On the phone note, I really like the $10 connectivity package that marriott is offering. High speed access + local and long distance phone calls.

Other charges: around $10 for parking at a hotel in Salt Lake (free parking available next door, though not from hotel.) However, most times I can side with the parking charges.

I seem to recall a thread here about charitable contributions added to hotel bills. (I think there was an earlier one -- but here's a thread from May: http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...ML/010330.html )

I make personally significant gifts to causes I believe in throughout the year. But I don't let other people make those decisions for me -- especially for a charity I'm not familiar with (how effective is the charity? who knows!)