Marriott has been breaking the law with the way they present the cost of free night awards. I’ve been writing about this for three years. I’ve been flagging it to Marriott. And they’ve consistently ignored me. That was a bad decision, because they’re now facing a class action lawsuit over it.
- Marriott lets hotels add resort and destination fees on free night awards. In contrast, when you spent Hilton or Hyatt points that covers the actual full cost of the room.
- When you search the Marriott website using your points, the initial search result doesn’t display the required cash co-pay.
- The FTC requires that the cost inclusive of resort fees be shown. Marriott entered a state-level settlement agreeing to it. And they comply with paid bookings, but not with points.
- In fact, the Marriott app can say “Taxes & fees included” even though that winds up not being true.
Three years ago I wrote that Marriott was updating its website to show all-in pricing inclusive of resort and destination fees but that they would not make the change to points price displays, continuing to show only the points price.
And then a few months later I showed how they were failing to comply with their legal obligations for free nights, when a member would see just the points cost of a room and have to click through three pages to reveal the cash cost. Ironically later in 2023 I even suggested this was ripe for a class action. I mean!
Not only doesn’t Marriott have to hit members with these costs on awards, they have the contractual right not to allow hotels to charge them at all. Yet they never even bothered to correct their free night award pricing display to be transparent and meet legal requirements. That’s exactly what they’re now being sued for.
For the lawsuit itself, they’ve got an even better lever than what I’d originally written about, that didn’t exist back in 2023.
- The class period begins July 1, 2024, when California’s all-in pricing law took effect, and it invokes the FTC fee rule for conduct after May 12, 2025. California says the listed price must include all mandatory charges. The FTC rule requires businesses displaying any hotel price to display the total mandatory price up front.
- So the class covers California residents who booked through Marriott channels using points and paid a resort or destination fee starting July 1, 2024.
- And also non-California residents booked during that period at a California hotel.
The suit is over “Drip Pricing Practice” (offering an award stay for a specific number of points as the price but later requiring the points plus a mandatory cash fee) and “Taxes-and-Fees Representation (saying taxes and fees are included in the app when mandatory fees and the taxes remain payable separately).
California prohibits “advertising, displaying, or offering” a price excluding mandatory fees. The federal rule applies whenever a lodging business displays “any price” and says consumers must be able to obtain the service for the advertised total price. A disclosure three screens later is not compliant. Marriott even knows the correct amount to display up front. They do it for paid stays! However, it’s still an uphill battle.
- Marriott Bonvoy’s terms require arbitration, and contain a class action waiver, and impose a one-year limitation period.
- Marriott will try to break up the class based on method of booking (website versus app, and even which version was displayed at the time each customer booked), different hotels and different fees (resort versus destination), etc.
- Marriott didn’t actually receive the resort fee. It’s something that goes to the hotel. So it may be tough to recover from Marriott for it, although Marriott charges hotels a portion fo their revenue, authorizes the fees, and saves money on program costs (they pay hotels less for free room nights because the hotels bill the customer directly).
There’s little question that the plaintiffs have the better facts. But Marriott has its program terms. Can members really sue for their bad practices?
Marriott only does this in the first place because allowing a resort fee improves the owner’s economics on an individual award stay. The hotel gets less money, precisely because they can bill the customer directly. Often the resort fee is more than the Bonvoy reimbusement for the free night.
In other words, their resort fee policy transfers part of the cost of an award from the loyalty fund to the guest, benefiting both the fee-charging owner and Marriott itself. Since “free night” can mean points plus a mandatory cash copay, Marriott Bonvoy is a less valuable program than many realize, and their points buy less.
(HT: Loyalty Lobby)
I heard that Marriott was planning on changing their name. They wanted to make their new name Hertz Hotels but then they found out it was already taken.
@David P — Bah! Got’em! (Delta Hotels, a Marriott brand, is fitting, though.)
>California prohibits “advertising, displaying, or offering” a price excluding mandatory fees.
Then how do airport restaurants in California get away with their add-on fees which are typically disclosed only on a small sign at the cash register? The displayed price is not the actual price.
I’m glad to see this and hope that some enterprising attorneys will discover more class action opportunities in the coming months.
I know that the ability to change a program, including actions that involve devaluation, is a privilege that these companies have written into their Terms and Conditions, but that doesn’t make them untouchable. Particularly when it melds into fraud — promising one thing and delivering something very different. I think there is great vulnerability to class actions given all of the devaluations (aka fraud) that have happened recently, and I hope to see more of these lawsuits.
@nsx at FlyerTalk CA (gov Newsom) gave restaurants a carveout. They do not have to show ‘all in pricing’ on menus. They just have to have it SOMEWHERE (could be small print on a menu, could be at the cash register), supposedly prominently displayed, that lists the surcharges/fees. But CA doesn’t enforce any laws anymore, so the point is moot. I have been surcharged with no notification (ordered meal at kiosk, paid for meal & tip at kiosk with ‘total’ displayed. No notification of CC surcharge anywhere that I could see. Did not get a receipt from kiosk; had to pickup my own meal when my # was called. Requested a printed receipt from an employee I encountered, and then saw the surcharge on my CC receipt).
@Melody — “But CA doesn’t enforce any laws anymore”… Ah, the good ole California/blue-state/blue-city *bad* trope. C’mon, with that logic, we can say anywhere (state/country) that you drive 1 mph over the speed limit and aren’t cited, means laws don’t exist anywhere.
God I hate knuckle dragging ambulance chasers and the scum always trying to angle for money. Work or invest for your money – don’t try to get a handout. Pathetic
Hopefully Marriott wins this. I wish the US made losing parties cover the winners costs in civil suits. That would, alone, greatly reduce the number of such suits.
These ‘Destination’ or ‘Resort’ fees — are they really ‘mandatory’? Maybe they will use that as a lawsuit fighting point.
Case in point (Hilton, not Marriott): I stayed at an Embassy Suites in CA. I had 2 nights booked via a corporate code on the HiltonHonors website & 2 following nights prepaid booked via Citibank Travel (who uses Expedia to do the actual booking, apparently) to use my $300 hotel credit from Citi Strata Elite CC.
My 1st 2 nights, no problem, got my 2 free waters for being elite, paid what I expected at “checkout”; but I stayed in the same room, ‘checked out’ and ‘checked back in’ with my 2nd booking via CitiTravel. When I ‘checked back in’, the woman said there would be a $20/day+tax/fees for a ‘Destination charge’. I said ‘what? I’ve stayed here lots and I’ve never been charged that before, and I didn’t get charged that for my 1st 2 nights’. She said it’s because I booked thru a 3rd party, Expedia. I said I’ve booked thru them before with no ‘Destination fee’. She said they started in Feb 2026. But she said I get $20 towards their (overpriced & never used) hotel restaurant, or at their (overpriced & not used) ‘convenience store’. And wifi (which everyone gets for free anyway). And ‘beach/lounge chairs’ (they have no beach, this is an urban Embassy Suites, not a resort — and their indoor pool is not used much). I had a friend over at the time, so I said, fine.
But then I got peeved, because it was a prepaid rate that supposedly included all taxes/fees (they listed it at the time). Then I realized I booked the prepaid rate BEFORE they instigated this new fee. Can they just add more fees after the fact, on a prepaid rate? I went back to the front desk after my friend left. I said it was a prepaid rate, made before you added the fee. I said my SO was angry & we shouldn’t have to pay the ‘Destination fee’. The woman did some typing and confirmed I prepaid before they instigated the ‘Destination fee’ and took it off. So they CAN just ‘take off the fee’, even if it is mandatory!? But to add insult to injury, even when I checked out with no charges to my CitiTravel room (they said there wasn’t a receipt they could print out because there were no charges & the rate was prepaid), I got hit with a $12.95 charge on my credit card. I called Embassy Suites and they said it was for the 2 in-room waters, I was on a 3rd party booking so my elite status is not honored to get those free. I was livid. I said I got 2 waters on my 1st reservation, which the front desk told me were free because I had status (and I booked thru HiltonHonors.com), and continued in the same room for the CitiTravel booking WHERE I DID NOT GET 2 NEW WATERS PUT INTO THE ROOM, IN FACT DID NOT GET THE ROOM SERVICED AT ALL. The front desk apologized, and said the system automatically charges, and reversed the charge. OMG, I feel like everywhere is trying to nickel & dime and cheat you all the time. It’s tiring trying to keep up.
How do we join the lawsuit?
@Melody — If a fee is truly a “mandatory destination fee,” it shouldn’t be a discretionary loyalty tax that vanishes the moment a guest complaints to the front desk. Also, $12.95 for two bottles of water that were already sitting there from your previous night is some peak late-stage capitalism. Glad you fought that nonsense.
@Retired Gambler — I get it, the ole lawyers-bad trope. Yet, it’s not a ‘handout’ to demand corporations honor what they advertise. It’s inherently deceptive when hotels hide fees until checkout or tack them onto ‘free’ nights. If consumers don’t use class actions to hold them accountable, what’s the alternative? Individual travelers don’t have the time or money to hire a lawyer over a $30 hidden fee, so corporations get to pocket millions in illegal revenue… No, this isn’t about laziness; it’s about holding massive companies to false advertising laws.
Marriott has inspired another criminal partner in Delta Airlines who will be charging destination & resort fees on every flight award or revenue ticket.When Delta was asked why they were doing this Delta replied because we can.They then corrected themselves to say its because folks are flying to a popular destination hub so its the perfect money grab
In all seriousness Marriott is simply a bunch of street whore vultures chewing on the carcasses of the once respected and appreciated Starwood
RIP SPG 🙁 MARRIOTT SUCKS
Just paid $11/night for an award stay at a Marriott in Los Angeles for an “ordinance fee”. It’s absurd.
Bonvoyed!
I’m all for making Marriott accountable. Wish it included non-California residents or stays as I’ve been hit with these now several times but not in California.
@DCJoe HAHAHA on the LA ‘Ordinance Fee’. LA did impose a fee on hotels a few years ago, not a mandatory fee for customers. When it first came out, another Embassy Suites in LA tried to pass this onto me (when I had just read about it). The Embassy Suites manager said it was a mandatory fee for customers staying in hotels in LA, imposed by LA County. No, I said it was a mandatory fee on HOTELS from LA County, not a mandatory fee for customers of hotels. I asked for it to be removed, and the manager did as he knew he was misrepresenting the fee.
I have used orbitz all over the world for a dozen years. they screwed me recently and then offered 30 orbucks for it. Do you think I ever got it. Tried to book a flight on untied. each time I went to pay it dropped me and had me start over at a higher price. I had to pay it as it was getting me to alonget flight i had already paid for. use to be just utilities and cable could screw you as there was no competition. now it is every body.
Charging separate resort fees is wrong, and everyone knows this. It’s simply not the way things are priced in the world. Charging them on “free nights” is outrageous, and the majority of hotel chains don’t allow it. Not sure why Marriott and a few other chains insist on maintaining this scam. Make the math work some other way (like raise the award price).
@Chopsticks — Wish we could also reign-in excessive surcharges on award flights, too. Emirates is like $2,500 for J plus whatever 250K points R/T. And, then there’s all the LHR surcharges. Oof. Makes a $12 hotel-scam-fee look like child’s play.
For @melody indeed when booking through expedia you are not granted any status benefits.
The water bottles indeed say they are for status holders (meaning also you booked through correct channels)
If Marriott was a hotel company maybe this would be relevant lol.
Yes @Matthew f Weinberg, I know if booking thru a 3rd party, no loyalty benefits are awarded @ Hilton. However, I had 2 bookings back-to-back. My 1st booking was thru HiltonHonors.com, and I got 2 waters free w/ elite status. They usually have a sign on the waters saying they were free only for elites, but that sign was not there when I checked in (but I knew). When I stayed in the same room for the 2nd reservation thru Expedia, Hilton did not refresh the room or put in 2 new waters. When I left the hotel, they charged me because they didn’t see 2 waters in the room, which spanned 2 reservations. That was their error and they removed the charge, but I had to call.
This is good that it’s is finally happening. Marriott needs to stop this and happy something is being done about this nasty practice. I have use so much FNC and they have charged me resort fees. I hope to get back the fees I paid over the years.
A “company of integrity”, known for “putting people first”. If customers are treated right they’ll come back. LOL. The problem is that corporate Marriott has forgotten or chosen to ignore the advice of it’s founders (if that ever meant anything in the first place). Today, Capuano’s biggest concern is what his memorial stone will say. Oh dear oh dear oh dear
I just booked a week’s vacation in Orlando and was told the resort charges $35.00 a night for parking I am staying but will not have a vehicle has anyone heard about this policy?
I just don’t understand why anyone would stay at a Marriott branded hotel after all they have done to their customers unless they are forced to stay there by their company.