Resort fees are meant to be deceptive. Hotels display one price, but charge guests another higher price each night of their stay.
They’re generally disclosed prior to booking, but make comparison shopping difficult. You see prices that do not include resort fees when searching for hotels at places like Expedia and Booking.com. You need to click through each one to find their resort fee, do the math, go back out and compare in your own spreadsheet.
Marriott has led the industry, consistent with its Pennsylvania resort fee settlement, in showing full pricing on its website when guests book stays. That actually makes Marriott hotels which charge resort fees or destination fees appear cheaper on third party sites, since those sites usually only show guests part of their rate.
But this improvement in transparency is true for paid stays only. While Marriott has agreed to show full pricing up front, it does not do so for award stays.
You have to click through three pages before seeing that there’s a resort fee that applies in addition to points. In fact, because the website is set up to describe the resort fee included in the rate it will often do so when displaying the points price, where no resort fee is disclosed.
Here’s the St. Regis Bahia Beach Resort showing 74,000 points per night – but not showing a resort fee. In fact, Marriott’s website states that the resort fee is included in the 74,000 point price for the room, when it is not!
Click further and you’ll see that there’s a $99 plus tax resort fee charged each night at this hotel. Marriott bills guests for ‘free’ redemption stays, since Bonvoy points do not cover resort or destination fees, a practice that neither Hilton nor Hyatt engage in. Though Marriott says the resort fee is included, they later disclose a cost of $107 per night in addition to points.
This repeats for hotel after hotel because price displays have been updated to comply with Marriott’s state resort fee settlements only for paid stays (even though those settlements do not carve out redemption stays).
Here’s the Sheraton San Juan, where the points price is said to include the resort fee.
Yet click through to book and you see that it does not.
Once again not only is Marriott failing to disclose the resort fee in its up front price display when paying for a room with points, they falsely claim there is no resort fee in addition to the points (that the points price includes the fee).
Marriott agreed that,
- All rate displays have to include total price and it has to be the most prominently displayed price.
- Rate displays sorted by price have to be sorted by total price inclusive of all costs
- Resort and destination fees cannot be lumped in with taxes in any display
- Prior to completing a booking Marriott has to display what’s provided by the property in exchange for the mandatory fee.
When I search paid stays on the Marriott website, I now see details of what is included in a hotel’s resort fee. I am not seeing similar displays when searching award nights.
Marriott does not appear to be compliant with its legal settlements, and since they are falsely telling guests who book redemption stays that the resort fee is included in the points price at first instance, prior to disclosing a fee, that price should be honored – guests who are paying resort fees where this disclosure is made should seek a refund.
Thanks for the heads up . Please report your findings to the appropriate folks In Pennsylvania – that’s the only way to get this stopped .
Has a similar issue with Hilton website saying the Christmas/New year gala dinners are included in room rate (e.g. for Hilton Luxor), and showing that message even on points stay
But when you go stay there award stays are charged for the mandatory gala dinners.
It will be interesting to see what the Pennsylvania attorney general does. Marriott has already paid one fine for not complying.
St. Regis Bora Bora tacked on an extra 60 per day on my stay saying the taxes and fees when I booked my award where only an estimate.
I avoid the Marriott Brand like the plague. They are a criminal corporation.
The award fee complaint – does guest call the Bonvoy people that answer the phones or does the complaint for the refund get discussed with the front desk manager at the hotels?
Hi Gary,
In other news of Marriott screwing us, they have apparently updated their T&C to make guests responsible to ensure Free Night Certs are properly attached, even thought its their crappy IT that would cause the issue in the first place.
https://loyaltylobby.com/2023/06/14/marriott-bonvoy-june-2023-tcs-change-monitor-award-reservations/
Would love to get this refunded on 7 nights resort fee in Hawaii. Anyone successful with this yet? What’s the best way to phrase it after the fact? You only see the $$ shown finally on the final checkout page.
Does anyone really trust Marriott these days? They have a CEO that cares more about the franchise owners than the people that actually pay the bills US ! As for rewards forget it their pricing is high and climbing with their product plummeting.
NOPE
@ Gary — This is Marriott after all. Should anyone be surprised?
Marriott is a criminal enterprise. Elite status means nothing, hotels refuse upgrades, free breakfast etc. Each year prices increase and the service decreases.
I’ve noticed many Marriott properties have replaced the resort fees with an exorbitant parking fee that does not have to be included or disclosed in property listings. Outside of big cities a car is pretty much required and Marriott sites will charge $20 or more per night for parking, even in places where nobody else charges for parking.
I recently redeemed a free night certificate in NYC and the screen told me there would be a $3.50 charge (I believe NYC tourist tax?). However when I checked out I was billed nothing, I wonder if the website is wrong, or if I got lucky.
I notice what someone said about parking, had this experience recently in DFW area where everywhere in the surrounding area did not charge parking but Marriott property charges $10 and there’s literally nothing around the hotel area. The manager said it was because it was a premium property and I got a good rate (work visit) so seems I should be thankful or something?
Resort fees, by design, are intended to cheat customers. The thieves at Marriott won’t stop stealing from customers until they are prosecuted.