The Holiday Inn Express & Suites Hudson I-94 surprisingly has an amenity fee, which is the same thing as a resort of destination fee. And it might just be the most honest resort fee, ever.
This is a Holiday Inn Express off the freeway, not a “resort.” It’s in Hudson, Wisconsin – not a major tourist “destination.” And it’s not even if Hudson’s ‘historic downtown’. And when you pull up the hotel’s amenities page they put Lay’s potato chips and Dorito’s front and center.
So what is the amenity fee for? What does it get you? Absolutely nothing. According to the hotel itself, the amenity fee is just part of the room rate, but breaking it out allows them to show you a lower rate.
According to an employee at their front desk, the amenity fee does not come with any amenities.
It’s actually an ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT FEE the owners put in place instead of raising the room rate.
Wait, what?
Yes, an ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT FEE, the owners put that in place instead of raising the room rate.
Marriott requires that hotels pursue a fiction that resort fees deliver value to guests. The resort fee’s inclusions must offer “complimentary services and amenities with a retail value that is at least four times greater than the destination or resort fee charged.”
That could include a yoga class once a week in the middle of the day at a downtown business hotel – such that no one would be able to take advantage of it. It could include discounts on overpriced local tours that the hotel is being paid to advertise to guests.
Everyone knows that resort fees are a scam. By taking part of the mandatory cost of a hotel room out of the room rate, the hotel looks less expensive than it really is. And even if the resort fee is disclosed prior to completing the reservation, it still makes the initial rate – the rate you’re comparing against other hotels in a search – seem less expensive.
Credit: Holiday Inn Express & Suites Hudson
The only reasons to have resort fees are to scam guests and to cheat taxing authorities or travel agencies that take a percentage of the room rate, but not a percentage of the total cost of the room. In other words, resort fees are literally fraud – both in intention and effect.
The Holiday Inn Express & Suites Hudson I-94 is being refreshingly honest about it, foregoing the pretense that the fee delivers something of value to guests outside of the room rate (but that still somehow isn’t valuable to guests, who wouldn’t opt into it on their own, and so it’s mandatory).
There’s a sucker born ever minute….
Oh, America, you keep searching for a bottom.
Great value and so much less than what NYC is charging 😉
I go thru Hudson a lot and it’s popular enough with tourists in the summer and some even in the winter. It’s a tourist destination of sorts even as it’s also sort of an ex-urb of Minneapolis/St. Paul and a place where most traffic just flies by on I-94 unless playing gas price or sales tax differences to get a cheaper deal in Hudson.
When I-94 was still US-12 or something like that, there used to be a toll bridge that connected Wisconsin with Minnesota at Hudson.
Hudson is a suburb. Not much of a resorty vibe there. Downtown is great for a night for dining though.
This is just a cash grab.
Which other hotels does the owner of the HIX just off I-94 in Hudson own? I suspect an owner of multiple US hotel properties would try to do the same thing at some other hotel properties.
Why do these mandatory resort fees exist? I’m a free-enterprise guy, but we need legislation to finally put an end to this nonsense. Heck, the airlines are even required by federal law to quote you the entire mandatory price including the taxes!
If they were refreshingly honest, they wouldn’t have a resort fee
Don’t stay there. Problem solved.
“I’m a free-enterprise guy, but we need legislation to finally put an end to this nonsense.”
Wow!
Deceptive trade practices are bad for free market participants. And bait display pricing of the sort mentioned is a deceptive trade practice.
Sounds like the hotel owner is scamming to avoid paying any city occupancy tax and to avoid honoring any corporate discounts. The “amenity” is the view of the Culver’s parking lot and the old Hudson GC.
The amenity is short walking distance to Culver’s and Target and both having lower sales tax than in MN.
We don’t need new rules against mandatory fees. It is false advertising and bait and switch.
Enforce existing rules
Smart owners. You think that’s fraud? Do some research on how the brands treat their franchisee owners. You’ll discover fraud there.
most midwestern nice post ever.
Maybe don’t stay at a hotel if you don’t want to pay a fee. It sounds like you chose to stay there at your own free will.
@Mike P — Where have you been, sir!? Professor, pray tell, how should we approach this through the lens of a libertarian such as yourself… instead of consumer protection regulation *gasp* shall we just ‘let the free market decide’ until enough folks get screwed that there is no one left to screw… nah, maybe they should just cut this out.
Is the owner’s last name Singh or Patel? Iykyk
I thought that the Federal Trade Commission outlawed extraneous fees several months ago. The price quoted MUST be inclusive of all taxes and fees. File a complaint with the FTC!
Any hotel owner charging a junk fee should be raped in the ass.
If all your competitors in a given market or price range are doing this, then you do it too. IHG is one of the more consistent and transparent networks aside from this.
If we get realistic, we would realize that America is built on marketing, not actual results. This applies to businesses as well as (or more accurately, especially politicians) politicians such as Trump and Biden. Sure, we get an accomplishment or two, but we blow those up to build our egos and the marketing people go to town.
Look at social media. It’s real growth in based on taking advantage of vanity (series?) and vain people are easy to market to.
Resort fees and all mandatory fees not clearly disclosed upfront are a SCAM to the consumer.
I refrain from staying in hotels that don’t quote their room rates honestly.
I’ll give a shout out to hotels.com as a good source for hidden hotels fees.
I look up a specific hotel and scroll down to their Fees & Policies section for a breakdown of mandatory fees, parking fees, meal fees, etc
I’ve posted on this before. While on a road trip with my Golden Retriever (hair machine) I stayed at a La Quinta Suites (most LQ’s do not charge for dogs unlike “pet friendly” IHG, Hyatt, Hilton, etc $50-75 per night extra cleaning fee). I understand the cleaning fee and have never challenged it, after all I’m very familiar how much hair my dog sheds. However, I was quite surprised by an ELECTRICITY/ENERGY availability surcharge of approximately 5%. In my simple thinking electricity in a hotel is as essential door locks, running water, toilets and clean linens/bedding. But excluding the charge, it kept the advertised price below $100 per night.
This is fraid, plain and simple. The hotel owner and managers should be prosecuted.
@kevin McKnight….easy to say don’t stay at a hotel if you don’t like the fees, but this scam is all too common now.
Hotels don’t require me to use their gym or drink at their bars, likewise I should have the option of declining the “amenities” charged for. I can survive without the landline, bottled water and complementary bathrobe, like some NYC hotels .
Heres another, Staybridge Suites Miami Airport, it now has a $5.99(I guess plus tax) as an Amenity Fee. When I called asking what I get for it, the answer was Service, I said it doesnt say a Service Fee but an Amenity Fee which means Im getting something and he agreed its simply a Scam and Rip-Off of the guests since Nothing is given at all was his response. Sure do wish IHG STOPS all this nonsense, told CS as long as you allow your Hotels to run amock I wont be booking any of them(even those w/o these fees)