At this point it takes a lot to shock me with the petty mandatory add-on fees some hotels can charge. The Staybridge Suites Tulsa Woodland Hills manages this feat quite easily with a “service fee” that “assists to invest in upgrades and initiatives for guest security.” There’s a mandatory safety fee, because apparently you aren’t assured a safe room as part of your rate at this property.

Credit: Staybridge Suites Tulsa Woodland Hills

Here they show the room rate ‘+$5 fees’:

It’s an extra $4.99 mandatory scam fee, of course, it doesn’t actually go into a segregated account that funds initiatives for guest security that wouldn’t otherwise be undertaken. And of course they could just… include it in the room rate, since you have to pay it to spend a night in a room there. They just prefer not to pay commission on that part of the rate to booking agencies, and they likely prefer to make the hotel appear cheaper than it really is when you’re comparing costs.

Here’s the description of the fees:

I have two reactions here, aside from the sheer audacity of charging an add-on fee separate from the room rate to cover the hotel’s security expenses.

• This comes off akin to an organized crime protection racket, mobsters demanding payoffs from store owners to protect the store from… the mobsters. You must pay this hotel extra to protect you from crime. Or else. Or else… what, exactly, are they threatening here?

• A hotel charging separately and extra for security takes on added liability for guest security. They may not find the revenue worth it in the end.

Credit: Staybridge Suites Tulsa Woodland Hills

What are they doing that’s above and beyond ordinary care here? They never say. I’d add that while Marriotts, Hiltons, and Hyatts – as well as unaffiliated hotels – charge their share of egregious fees, it sure seems that low-end IHG properties push the envelope furthest and most often. IHG is known for exercising relatively little control over their franchisees.