Tag Archives for resort fees.
Marriott Bonvoy free night awards are increasingly not free at all, with some hotels adding resort fees of nearly $200 per night even on points stays. That exposes the core conflict in hotel loyalty: chains promise value to guests while trying to lower costs for hotel owners, and eventually that contradiction breaks trust.
Marriott Bonvoy is facing a class action over award nights that appear to cost only points, but later add mandatory resort or destination fees. The lawsuit says Marriott hides the true cash cost of “free” nights, even though paid stays show all-in pricing — and the app can still claim taxes and fees are included when they are not.
NYC’s mayor says he’s banning hotel “junk fees” everywhere—not just in the city. In reality, the proposal forces all-in price disclosure (and disclosure of deposits and card holds), pretty much mirroring existing federal rules with additional fine revenue for the city.
A Chicago hotel is advertising rooms as low as $15 through consolidators, then attaching a staggering $125 nightly “resort fee” — the most extreme example of fee padding I’ve ever seen. The charges are buried, inconsistently disclosed, and even appear to shift when waived, raising serious questions about how these properties present their pricing.
I think we’ve discovered the worst hotels in the world that have resort fees. Not coincidentally, they’re at two of the most absurdly named properties I’ve come across.
When Marriott took over Starwood and then launched the Bonvoy program, they told owners that the economics would work out better for them. Part of how they did it is by forcing these scam charges on their customers. Yet their owner contracts explicitly allow Marriott to halt these fees.
When a Hyatt property charges a destination fee that is not even disclosed during the booking process that’s especially egregious, and clearly illegal. If you don’t check your bill prior to check-out, you wouldn’t even know you were being charged more than the price you were quoted for the room.
Resort fees are infuriating. The price of a hotel room isn’t the price. You book a room advertised at one price, but the hotel charges you that plus an additional fee. And since that ‘resort’ or ‘destination fee’ is mandatory, the room rate is deceptive because it doesn’t tell you how much it costs to stay at the hotel. But what if it turned out htat paying it was optional, after all?
The Hotel Lucia in Portland has one of the worst resort fees in the country, among other strange practices. @travelbabbo stayed there and reports that they were surprised by the fee at check-out, asked what it included, and the property’s manager told him it was for bike rides, coffee, and use of the elevators.
We’ve finally found it: the hotel with the most egregious add-on fees in the country. Every other hotel can stop trying, because the 31 Street Broadway Hotel in New York cannot be beaten.
On top of the room rate, they charge 49% Destination fee, 47% Bed linens fee, and a $120.00 Property service charge per stay.
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 »
