A couple of months ago I speculated that Hyatt’s Motif hotel in Seattle had the country’s most egregious resort or destination fee which was described as covering the bathroom mirror, the television, and – among other things – the in-room coffee maker. After I exposed this they’ve removed these items from the list of things covered by the resort fee. They haven’t reduced or eliminated the fee.
There’s another destination fee, coincidentally also at a Hyatt property, that might be even worse – or at least just as bad. At the Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor the destination fee covers the view and your right to photograph it. Describing the $25 per night inclusion, one of the covered items is “Panoramic Views of Boston with photo opportunity.” For a $25 per night fee, they might at least offer to take your photo with a high quality camera?
Credit: Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor
Is saying that the room’s rate doesn’t include looking out the window and taking a picture, so you have to be charged extra for that, better or worse than saying that it doesn’t include the television in the room or the bathroom mirror? And how to these hotel policies compare to Hyatt’s Hotel de Anza in San Jose including use of the desk in your room as a benefit of its resort fee?
“Resort fees” are extra charges, on top of a room rate, that aren’t optional. In other words they’re part of the price of a room, but the hotel advertises a lower price instead. That’s on face deceptive. They used to be limited to resorts but then city hotels came up with “destination fees.”
These fees – which are only displayed at checkout and not when you’re comparing hotel rates in a search – make it difficult to know up front how much a hotel will cost, and make it difficult to compare prices. But the Federal Trade Commission has said they’re ok with the practice as long as the fees are disclosed prior to confirming the stay.
Fortunately Hyatt doesn’t add resort and destination fees on award redemptions, and Globalist members don’t have to pay them on revenue stays. But these three most egregious fees I’ve seen are all at Hyatt’s, so maybe the chain needs better brand standards in this area at a minimum.
Update: A Hyatt spokesperson shares,
As soon as we were made aware of this, we looked into it further with the Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor hotel team, and the hotel team is working to review its destination fee inclusions and remove any inclusions that that have changed or are no longer available.
Further, we are working to review and assess all U.S. Hyatt hotels’ destination and resort fees in an effort to ensure inclusions enhance guest experience at these properties and offer guests items and experiences of value.
Hey Gary, check out Holiday Inn Express San Francisco Airport North. $7/night amenity fee and when you click to view details, it’s described simply as Hospitality Fee.
The hotel’s base room rate happens to be $93/night when the nearby Four Points by Sheraton is $100/night.
I’d stay in the Four Points out of principle, but reviews say it smells like urine and doesn’t have an airport shuttle.
We have been seeing more of this crap, even in the lower end hotels. I have pretty much stopped staying at Hyatt properties for a multitude of reasons. Hilton and Choice are marginally better for the time being.
This is getting ridiculous, these hotels already charge more then others for the location/view. They also charge more for a high floor room and often facing a certain way.
Will they offer us a $25 discount when we have the shitty room overlooking the parking lot? What if the visibility and weather is bad? Is the fee removed.
This seems to be a new trend mostly at Hyatt’s and I think they are doing these new fees that are specifically not marked as resort fees, as those are waived for elites and award stays.
Now that booking engines display resort fees in the headline price, why does anyone care about resort/destination fees? They can split my room rate into 100 line items, if they desire. But if someone can give me a reason to stay angry about it, I’m happy to do so!
Start including fees in the hotel tax base and they will go away
Almost everyone has a “side hustle” nowadays. L 😛 L!
Not going to feel bad when zoom conferences put these places out of business. Unless, of course, Daddy Biden and his dems bail them out because they make some public “woke” statement and agree to replace “taiwan” with “china” on their websites.
WHO the heck are those geniuses putting this down in writing?? WTH? Are they retarded or just want people ticked off at them… Get those clowns FIRED and hire some people with PRE-PAID TIPS on your credit card when you book… Much smoother… WTH??? Thanks for pointing out the hotels that do such practices… It really points out the hotels that will go OUT of their ways for you and where you can count on extra treats… Just saying! THANKS!!!
Whatever the Hyatt’s Motif hotel is doing is all wrong. Everything should be included with the check-in period. Am sure most of the people will discard that for sure. Makes someone jump off his budget plan lol
Pathetic. Boycott them. There are other places to stay.
Your mistake is accepting the explanation. These are fraudulent markups, they have no relation to any amenities. Ever.
It makes no sense singling out specific properties for these bogus charges. Just call them all what they are: fraudulent.
I called the hotel and they confirmed it was FREE pictures for Top Tier Globalists ONLY… Check your status before booking!
It rained when I stayed there and I couldn’t see a thing from my window. Whom d I contact for a refund?
Greg, do you support legislation to stop this practice?
Love it awesome reporting
Wait a second! Why are we complaining about this?
We all can be an owner of a new Marriott network hotel in Salt Lake City and WE can be doing this too.
What the heck were we thinking?
To be more accurate, the headline should read:
“One Hyatt Charges Extra In Case You Might Want To Take A Picture Of The View”.
… since you pay the charge even if you don’t have a camera.
I wonder if your room doesn’t face the harbor, do you still have to pay the fee…
I think this inclusion has disappeared from the hotel’s website.
We see more and more of our benefits for loyalty being added to these fees, such as free WiFi. I’ve booked Kimpton in California and they are charging me $45 daily fee for free local and national calls (I have a cellphone like most and don’t live in US), $10 F&B credit, Wi-Fi that I get as IHG Platinum, free storage of my canoe or kayak (we are 3 km from beach) as well as access to their pool, free map of local hiking trails and a tote. Such a scam.