Category Archives for Hotels.
One of the more egregious examples of hidden, undisclosed fees I’ve seen has to be the Hyatt Place St. Augustine / Vilano Beach which reportedly adds a “Mandatory Valet Parking Fee” of $25 per night.
Hyatt ended free, full breakfast at Hyatt Place properties as a brand standard guarantee during the pandemic.
They dropped the requirement that you book direct to get breakfast, but also started charging non-elite guests for breakfast at some properties as a test. I hadn’t realized until recently that – four years later – this test continues, with the future of free Hyatt Place breakfast still uncertain.
I checked into the Grand Hyatt in DC earlier this week. Or, should I say, I tried to check in. There was a long line at the desk, but no line for elite check-in. Of course, there was nobody working elite check-in, either.
I don’t care about being thanked. The interaction is usually perfunctory and awkward. I care about a hotel honoring elite benefits. I care about receiving an upgrade if possible, and having the way the hotel’s status benefits explained – such as what is the breakfast offering?
Missing a thank you might even be preferred.
Management dropped rates below $100 on some nights – but that attracted a different clientele, “a rise in drunken and disruptive guests.” With reduced revenue, the management company HEI pushed out long-time employees who delivered the high quality service the property was known for. Then “[m]ore homeless people entered the hotel and fentanyl contamination showed up in lobby bathrooms.”
The property blames the pandemic for reduced staffing in 2024. Remaining employees have been told they “no longer work for a hospitality company” but “for a real estate company” instead.
This isn’t just an old note, like the stickers you still see in some hotels saying that vaccinated guests don’t have to mask or occupancy limits on elevators, with markings on the ground showing where you should stand distanced from other guests. This is marked as “2024-5.”
Resort fees are infuriating. The price of a hotel room isn’t the price. You book a room advertised at one price, but the hotel charges you that plus an additional fee. And since that ‘resort’ or ‘destination fee’ is mandatory, the room rate is deceptive because it doesn’t tell you how much it costs to stay at the hotel. But what if it turned out htat paying it was optional, after all?
A reader shares his experience checking in at the Chicago Marriott Schaumburg. He presented his ID and credit card. The associated thanked him for being a Bonvoy Platinum member. And then “summoned security over” and told him he was being walked.
When a guest at Marriott’s Courtyard Crystal City/Washington National airport complained about the property’s upgrade policies, the hotel general manager responded – and laid out why he prefers not to make upgrades available to elite members.
The Westin Tempe narrowly avoided foreclosure. Now it’s hawking condoms to guests, as well as paid upgrades and late check-out, even to elite members of Marriott’s Bonvoy program.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
