Tag Archives for fees.
A Marriott Fairfield Inn in Plano, Texas, was caught charging guests a fake “city fee” for parking they never used. One reader exposed the scheme — and made them stop.
This Marriott is reportedly hiding parking charges as mandatory “City Fees” — even for guests without cars. It’s not the first hotel I’ve heard of doing this.
A $5 boarding pass fee sparked a standoff at the check-in counter. Bodycam footage shows the moment a passenger’s refusal ended with police taking him to jail.
A reader shares that the were billed “$50 to charge a laptop” at Paris Las Vegas, and they thought this was “an even more outrageous fee” than $26 for a bottle of water at Aria. Las Vegas executives can’t seem to figure out why tourist visits are declining in the city.
The Big Beautiful Bill has more and more warts that just keep coming out, including a new $250 “Visa Integrity Fee” for most foreigners applying for U.S. nonimmigrant visas. It’s a ‘refundable deposit’ that you’re supposed to get back for leaving the U.S. on time, though no one knows yet how refunds will actually happen. Implementing a cross-agency refund system is going to take… time. The fee amount will adjust up with inflation.
The better approach, now that these fees are showing up and making the property look exorbitantly expensive, might just be to call the cops on parties before any damage gets done? Put out free donuts and coffee and make the hotel a place cops are happy to stop by first, of course.
If you want to know what the service charge is for, you’re going to have to ask them. Here’s how they described it.
I wrote two years ago about the way that Marriott illegally hides resort and destination fees from guests who are booking rooms using points. It’s gotten worse.
This hotel charges an amenity fee that covers an on-site minimart to sell you bags of chips? And they appear to add a credit card surcharge that is expressly illegal under state law.
Since it is not optional, it’s really part of the rate. They’re just breaking it out to make the rate look lower, to make you think you’re paying less or at least make you think their property is cheaper than it is when you’re comparison shopping.
Plus, since it’s collected on property even for prepaid rates sold through travel agency sites, they don’t pay commission on part of the rate. Put another away, all of the reasons to do this seem to essentially be fraud.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
