Tag Archives for resort fee.
Chase’s travel portal is charging Hyatt’s most loyal guests resort fees they aren’t supposed to pay—but there’s an easy way to get your money back. Here’s exactly what you need to do.
This week I took a few American Airlines flights in first class, including on back-to-back days. That’s not unusual, except I pre-ordered meals and had forgotten I’d done so for day one when I pre-ordered day two.
I’ve stayed at the Westin Arlington in the D.C. suburbs dozens of times over the years. It’s close to my office there. And the way this franchise treats guests is indicative, I think, of the larger problem with Marriott:.
The Holiday Inn Express & Suites Hudson I-94 surprisingly has an amenity fee, which is the same thing as a resort of destination fee. And it might just be the most honest resort fee, ever.
Resort fees usually include collections of useless items, or small discounts or credits that the hotel benefits from when you spend more than the allotted amount. In the case of a $15 food and beverage credit, much of the time the hotel comes out ahead if you use it. Denying it to the guest is a mistake. But it’s also a scam layered on top of the resort/destination fee scam itself, because the hotel is getting compensated for it – and has to provide the same benefits to redemption guests as cash ones.
It’s time for short-term rental homesharing to clean up its absurd drip pricing act, and for online travel agencies to clean up theirs over how they display the price of all accommodations.
Marriott doesn’t appear to be complying with its legal settlement on resort fees. Depending on the property, they still show up as part of taxes which is deceptive. And while Marriott now supposedly lets you include resort fees as part of the total price shown on its website at first display, they are doing this only for paid rates and not for award nights (where they are even more deceptive).
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.
More hotels should simply state, as this one does, that the add-on fee doesn’t actually get you anything. They should stop pretending you get some bundle of value when you don’t.
I actually like that this hotel doesn’t bother displaying a list of bogus benefits like a once a week yoga class outdoors at 3 a.m. in winter and a free underwater basket weaving class with mandatory extra charge for snorkel gear.
The Hyatt Centric Sacramento adds $17.43 per night for an “historical commitment fee.” This fee does not cover anything related to historic preservation. It’s just a resort fee, re-named, so that it sounds more reasonable and so they can charge Hyatt elite members who would otherwise be exempt from this fee.
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 »
