Marriott free nights aren’t free. If you spend Hilton points for a hotel room stay, that’s free. If you spend Hyatt points for a hotel room stay, that’s free. But Marriott Bonvoy members only get their room and tax covered. Hotels get to charge guests separately for resort fees and destination fees. You might redeem your points but still wind up having to pay $99 plus tax (the actual charge at St. Regis Bahia Beach Resort).
JW Marriott Desert Ridge
When Marriott took over Starwood and then launched the Bonvoy program, they told owners that the economics would work out better for them. Part of how they did it is by forcing these scam charges on their customers.
- Resort fees are deceptive. Hotel rooms are quoted at one price, but the guest gets charged a different, higher price. They also make it more difficult to compare rates, since the room rates you’re comparing aren’t the actual cost of the stay.
- They are also a way to cheat travel agents, who earn a commission on a percentage of the room rate. This takes part of the night’s room cost and moves it into a different category, helping hotels save on those expenses too.
- But it’s adding these fees on ‘free night awards’ that’s especially egregious. The old Marriott program didn’t do this. Starwood didn’t do it. Anyone with points in the program that turned into Bonvoy suddenly had those points only cover part of the cost of their supposedly-free stays.
New York EDITION
Now, it’s interesting that Marriott actually has standards for hotels charging resort and destination fees. In fact, it’s in the basic franchise agreement that hotels must meet certain criteria in order to charge this fee.
- Marriott has the right to tell hotels not to charge one.
- And Marriott has the right to waive these fees for Bonvoy elite members.
The franchise agreement allows Marriott to exempt elite members from paying resort and destination fees (something Hyatt does for its top tier Globalist members, and Hilton and Hyatt do on redemption stays for all members). Yet Marriott still doesn’t do this.
Waikiki Beach Marriott
Clearly, though, they’ve thought about and built in the option to eliminate resort and destination fees at least for elite members. But they’ve never done it. These scam fees are pretty core to the Bonvoy program’s economics, that hotels get to whack members with resort fees on redemptions, so it doesn’t surprise me that they haven’t taken this away from owners (and that they haven’t been willing to compensate owners more for points stays to offset losing these fees).
However I wonder how many people working on the Bonvoy program even know that they already have a contractual right to exempt elites from resort fees?
These programs will charge fees so long as loyalists continue to stay. There’s no reason nor incentive for them to change.
There’s a lot to unpack here. Does this mean that properties that do not meet one or more of Marriott’s brand standards can’t charge a fee? Who decides what is worth 4x the fee? Does it include (worthless) in room phone? How does one value the cable company’s basic hotel package orher than at what the property is charged? And since, theoretically, some number of properties must fall below Marriott’s “average intent to recommend score”, does this require those substandard properties to not charge a fee?
Or is this another Bonvoy scam – merely there to give the company rep something with which to bludgeon the owner corporation?
Why Bonvoy on its current trajectory of devaluations would even consider any enhancements for their current program? They would rather collect $1,500 application fee + $550 per year from the hotels that charge the resort / destination fees. Bonvoy doesn’t even provide water to elites across their brands anymore…
Sounds like Marriott goes out of their way to please their customers, the property owners.
Downgrading guests from customer to product — while deceiving them into thinking they still were customers — was a genius business move.
Everything is small potatoes compared to that fundamental, cynical deception.
IHG adds them too. I just spent 4 nights on points at the Theta Kimpton in NYC and paid $200 in resort fees for those free nights, including the bonus “fourth night free.” Ridiculous. It was the middle of winter.
Reason 38 why I don’t carry a Marriott credit card anymore. It’s bad enough hotels charge for parking on free nights or otherwise, but to get hit with resort fees on free nights is obscene. More than half of the “resorts” are really just regular hotels anyway. And they wonder why travelers chose VRBO over this. Pfft.
It is very clear that Marriott hotel owners wear the pants in the household, and Marriott is subservant to hotel owners, and basically gives hotel owners a near Carte Blanche. It is equally clear that Marriott International’s hotel owners are their customers, and not Marriott’s guests. We “hotel guests,” have become ancillary to Marriott, and our once loyalty to Marriott has little meaning to Marriott.
I remain mind-boggled that the architect of the Starwood Preferred Guest program, then superior to Marriott Rewards, David Flueck, became a Vice President, or Senior Vice President of Brand Loyalty (e.g. Marriott Bonvoy), at Marriott International, he clearly knows better, and sold his soul to the devil.
We, loyal Marriott guests, in my opinion, need a union. I’m not kidding (and I am not pro-union).
Bonvoid members bend over with resort and destination fees for your loyalty
In addition getting royally screwed booking MGM hotels compared to the Hyatt relationship years
I’d debate many Marriott members deserve what they get for being a flock of sheep and following the herd passively.One must be vocal and slam them in reviews
When the coming President Musk and his Vice President Trump led recession kicks in we may see some changes however it’s been a sellers market for some time and most hotel companies have bled their members like never before in history with fees and point devaluations.In the meantime we have choices so vote with your wallet wisely
150 nights last year and only once paid resort fees for 4 nights but negotiated for 50% off those fees.
Resort fees at any hotel at any time is complete BS! That’s why we always stay at AirB&B’s or FRBO’s.
I avoid Marriott whenever possible for this reason. Hidden fees of any sort are fraudulent. One of the comments was posted by a retired attorney. Hopefully, he will come out of retirement long enough to file a class action lawsuit against Marriott. I didn’t consent to my Marriot points being devalued by charging me large fees to redeem them.
Hilton has been known to charge resort fees when you redeem points. I once was looking to use points to stay in Honolulu, HI and they still were going to charge me $25 per day resort fee. That was several years ago.
I paid for two nights earlier this month at the San Francisco Marriott Waterfront and used two suite upgrades. My statement reflected the upgrades but no purchases or stay credits. Had to submit missing stay form to get the credits.
Last year, I booked three days at The Ritz in Rancho Mirage with points. They offered me a free upgrade and had the nerve to charge me for it on check out. Creeps.
The resort fees are annoying.
But a few important clarifications.
1) If you are booking through mariotte channels, they are not hidden. Heck, you can search for hotels with all taxes and fees included. I don’t understand why this isn’t the default setting for swatches via all platforms.
2) The existence of an amenity fee does not actually mean that hotel is the worst value option. There have been many times in my multi brand searches that the autograph collection hotel with a $30 fee is still cheaper than a comparable option without a fee. I think they the key is to compare your prices (across brands) with taxes and fees factored in. Problem solved.
Now third party booking websites are an entirely different beast… They are notorious for not including ammenity fees, leaving customers angry when they show up for their stay and get charged more. And funny thing is- people are always angry at the individual hotel INSTEAD of getting angry at Priceline/Travelocity/etc.
The one thing I wish Al hotels with ammenity fees wood do- clearly list the inclusions in an easy to see place. Too often I find myself having to go on a huge goose chase (or having to cak the hotel) to see what’s included…because again, the inclusions in the fee hell.me determine the value of the stay. Hyatt generally makes it easy to find out the inclusions in app. Sometimes Hilton and IHG do, sometimes not. Bur with Mariotte I always have to go to.rhe hotels website… And sometimes to their non mariotte website. Definitely frustrating.
I recently redeemed a “free night” certificate with IHG that cost me more than 50 bucks because of a resort fee. Everyone knows this is wrong. Marriott and IHG management should be ashamed for allowing this deceptive and obnoxious practice.
” If you are booking through mariotte channels, they are not hidden”
But those aren’t the places you’re comparing Marriott against other properties – that Marriott benefits from deceiving customers on sites that show non-Marriott choices.
The Westin Excelsior in Rome charges tax on point redemption stays. Maybe some others are also doing that.
Resort & amenity fees are scams created by hotels in USA to rip billions from their guests.
Same as a mandatory 20% gratuity added on room service bills. It’s time the Federal Government legistlates and bans these practices to bring back a sense of hospitality to all hotels.
I just wanted to echo @Ralph’s point. When we, the guests, with hotels, or we, the passengers, with airlines, are no longer the customers–we’re just the consumers–and the actual customers are the majority shareholders, franchisees, etc.–everything and anything is going to be about appeasing the monied interests over what is best for the consumers and the workers. Sure, in our current system, the market is supposed to respond by not bringing bad actors more business. Yet, that really has not happened–instead, we the consumers, just ‘put up with it,’ so this process continues–greed and selfishness are rewarded, and therefore, encouraged. So, yeah, I’ll ‘do my part’ and try to spend more at Hyatt and Hilton, since they don’t do this as much as Marriott or IHG. In the aggregate, maybe it matters. Or, those other brands will adopt Marriott’s way, soon enough, then we’ll all basically have no ‘choice.’ Oh well, nice while it lasted, eh?
I tire of being Bonvoyed over and over