Back in the fall I wrote about the Holiday Inn Express in Elko, Nevada charging $12.95 extra per night in addition to the room rate for electricity. They were also charging an extra 3% for guests who wanted to pay with a Chase IHG One Rewards credit card. I would not stay in a hotel that does not consider its room rate to include electricity.
After I wrote about it, One Mile at a Time covered the charges as well. And the property went into damage control mode, appearing to flood TripAdvisor with fake reviews. What they didn’t do is stop being a bad actor.
Instead they keep changing what the $12.95 pseudo-resort fee is for. As a reader shared,
I was browsing hotels in the Elko area and recalled the October 2024 VFTW Blog Posting. Back then it was an “ERF,” energy recovery fee.
Earlier this week, it was a FOOD & BEVERAGE Fee. I called, spoke with a desk clerk who…said it covers the Tuesday and Wednesday evening Happy Hour. She literally said, “FOOD AND BEVERAGE FEE.” I neglected to ask what it covers the other five days of the week.
Today, I called again.. [and] it’s an AMENITY FEE! According to person on other line, “We offer more amenities compared to most Holiday Inn Express properties. IHG allows us to collect this fee as compensation. We offer more breakfast options, two different egg choices instead of own. We also have a propane grill outside, and offer SLEEP WELL BAGS.”
Me “what does a sleep well bag entail?” “It contains Sleepytime tea, and a bottle of water.”
The tea runs 36 cents per bag so $12.95 checks out.
This comes down to hotel chains exercising control over their franchisees. When you realize the business model is really selling franchisees it all makes sense.
You have to ask yourself Dash what else are they trying to bury?
Just once I would like to see a hotel charge a F**k you fee.
The description of this fee is upon payment you are allowed to say F you to the front office manager on duty.
I would pay this fee!
Tariffs Fee in 3…2….1…
As always, Gary, thank you, and the others, for reporting on these scammers. We need to name and shame, otherwise, this corruption will proliferate. It’s tedious; I know. Gotta call it out.
@George N Romey — We agree here; the brand needs to enforce, otherwise it’s going to suffer. Then again, maybe this is as-expected for ‘Holiday Inn Express,’ though I suspect it isn’t standard practice.
the first Express I stayed was a brand new one in Savannah GA. back in 08, since then I’ve given them several chances in multiple cities and find the quaity of the product varies from property to property but the best was the first and its been downhill from there…I opt to stay at the many other IHG names that offer much better rooms and services, the free breakfast has been spotty at best for Express also and not worth the usually extra $$
First: I thought that the FTC outlawed all “extra fees” and must include all “fees” in the published price for the room. I’d dispute the charge with the credit card company AND turn the hotel into the FTC. Secondly, TELL the hotel that you are giving them ONE STAR on Trip Advisor, Yelp, etc. I’ve found that IHG is totally USELESS for assisting anyone. As far as corporate reigning in their franchisees…also USELESS. “We can’t control what our franchisee’s do.” WHAT THE HELL? If they fly your flag, you damned sure can tell them if they are not living up to your standards. Good luck!
I needed to stay in Elko last month for work and I made sure to avoid this HIX due to your reporting, Gary. They lost a week of revenue due to the fee. Thanks for letting us know which of these scam properties to avoid.
I’m staying at a holiday inn Express in PA. They just started charging a parking fee. 3.77. it’s new it wasn’t on the bill last week.
Chargeback and file an AG complaint. That should make them regret charging you.
For those who might need the link to the FTC’s ruling (which is really clear that the situation in the article is illegal): https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/rule-unfair-or-deceptive-fees-frequently-asked-questions
@Gene — I suppose that’s the best we got these days, unless you dare try the Better Business Bureau, or regulators, the Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, mostly DOGEd though, or an actual lawsuit, all of which is indeed a lot of effort for $12.95, which is probably… exactly ‘what they want you to think’ (time to put on my tinfoil hat!)
Need your help we travelled from India on Qatar airways codeshare indigo airline on 17Th March we were about 17 travellers from different part of USA .indigo was delayed by 4 hours from Bombay resulting in all of us missing our connecting flight from Doha .after about 30 days all we receive is a sorry letter from Qatar customer care team which is totally unfair due to the inconvenience and loss of one day that we were stuck in Doha and then change of destination from Philadelphia to Chicago please advice as to what can we do to get some kind of compensation
Thanks for letting everyone know about the fees. Two egg choices and a bottle of water does not seem attractive. Coffee 24/7 and offers of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies as part of the regular room rate is more like.
We all got our choices and by refusing to pay those fees and stay in that crappy place and look instead for a Hampton in, it is a better choice, believe me, I traveled for 32 + years.That is the only way that the management will understand
@Un. I wish all hotels would accurately label their fees. The “F you” fee. The “what are you gonna do, go somewhere else?” fee. The “Screw it, another dollar won’t break you” fee. The “printing all these fees on your receipt uses too much toner” fee.
The hotels watch the airlines screw over the people so they said “Hold my beer & watch this!!!”
Actually a bit worse than reported… $12.95 PER GUEST, PER NIGHT ($25.90 per couple, per night).
Additional Charges: 12.95 USD per guest per night not included in rate. Welcome amenities including alternating days cookies, chips and salsa, reception on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings with appetizers and soft drinks. Complimentary use of the BBQ grill on our patio, a sleep well bag if needed.
These hotels are getting carried away all these extra fees the people need to speak out file complaints or don’t stay at the hotel so tell him why
Someone remarked that charging fees was banned by the government.
Offering correction: what the government now requires is that all fees are clearly disclosed at the time of booking. But properties are still allowed to charge all the fees they want.
Recently redeemed point for a night at a Kimpton and got stuck paying a $38 ammenity fee, a $15 “employee protection” fee, and some other questionable $5 fee.
Gotta love it when a “free” night costs $60.
They should just call it a resort fee and no one will say squat. Sure, it’s a holiday inn, but they have a pool and free breakfast, just like the fancy hotels.
Disgusting behavior by franchisees.
I had a fee once (from Pizza Hut of all places) that was a 10% ‘it’s expensive to business in CA fee’. I kid you not, that is what the explanation of the fee said.
Gary believes in small guvmint and unfettered capitalism. Gary is describing the outcome of unfettered capitalism and should be happy.
Sadly when unfettered capitalism hits Gary in the wallet, he suddenly has an issue
Yeah I’d have issues with that. To be honest, I’d probably be the smartass that would say “My phone has several days battery life and is charged enough, I don’t watch live TV, and I”m going to get some sleep. Go ahead and turn off my electricity and you can take that $12.95 off the bill” LOL.
And, to be honest, with the “amenity fee” I’d probalby grab the soaps, shampoo, can you still ask for a toohbrush?, the plastic cups… go out and light a smoke on the grill… I don’t like a heavy breakfast so no shenanigans there though.
Well, OK, in reality, I’ll go to a hotel that doesn’t just make up charges… I did get petty and have the cable company start sending me a paper bill again when they took off the paperless billing discount LOL. (I’ve since cancelled the cable since between a TV antenna and Internet streaming, I found no reason to be paying for channels that are like 40-50% ads, noticeably more than I get over the air and much more than any streaming has.)
You can always send letters to the city’s hotel tax collector fo investigate the business in their tax jurisdiction that you have reason to believe that they are purposefully excluding rental revenue from their tax payments or are charging their customers for taxes that they don’t properly pass along to the tax authority. If they get enough complaints about this they’ll eventually schedule an audit on their business.
Please check out the Holiday inn in Bishop, CA. I was ignorance and paid the $23 a night fee when I stayed there 4 nights. A staff called it parking fee, but I could have parked on the street that is free. Another staff called it “do not know”. But at least it says up front on the booking page.
Does it matter anymore? Hotels are required to tell you the full price up front which is all that matters.
Here’s another example of an IHG franchisee trying it on. I paid for a B&B rate at Holiday Inn, Quincy (IL). When I checked in, I was given a $10 voucher towards their al la carte breakfast menu. Needless to say, it wouldn’t even cover a bowl of cereal and a hot drink….
I complained to the IHG head office but they have gone silent.
Indeed IHG itself is also guilty of scamming people. I am a high level rewards member. One of the perks IHG pushes is a 4th night free with points. Recently tried to use that. First, I selected three nights and the charge was 42,666 points per night. When I added the 4th night, which was supposed to be free, they front loaded the points needed for the other days to 75,000 so that the total for the 4 nights still averaged out to 42,000 points per night. This is a perk? It’s a scam!!!
@747always, fraud is fraud – saying your price is X when it’s really X+12.95 is fraud. It doesn’t matter what economic system you favor, you shouldn’t support fraud. We all need to fight these fraudsters or this garbage will spread like cancer.
Remember that the FTC regs on deceptive fees don’t kick in until May 12, so these are legal until Monday.
AI Overview
Indian Americans own approximately 60% of all hotels in the United States. This represents a significant portion of the hotel industry, with Indian Americans controlling over 34,000 hotels. The surge in Indian American hotel ownership is often attributed to factors like financial planning, business acumen, and a strong entrepreneurial spirit. Many of these owners are from the Patel community, originating from Gujarat, India, and have established themselves in the hotel industry through hard work and persistence.
@DaveS — Thank you. This guy gets it.
I actually just went and checked on the IHG site for this hotel and they have an entire list of what the charges are for including rotating the cookies lol a chip and salsa reception the bbq grill and the sleep bag. These charges are ridiculous but the fact that I’ve really never looked into what I am being charged for is even more crazy. Thank you for bringing this to my attention
It’s greed, pure and simple.
This greed is the downfall of America.
@747 I am an unapologetic supporter of free enterprise. A regular ruse of the haters of economic freedom is to accuse those who support free enterprise of condoning fraud. I’ve yet to meet a pro-free-enterpriser who believes fraud should be tolerated.
@Dave W. — Do you mean to say that some use ‘projection’ and other logical fallacies on here and elsewhere, in some form of… dare I say it… ‘bad faith’ argument? What!?
Next, you’ll tell me ‘sarcasm’ exists… Bah!
IHG (parent company of Holiday Inn Express) needs to discipline this greedy misguided franchisee as they are harming the brand. I have an IHG credit card and generally like staying at IHG hotels for the good value they provide. IHG now controls 19 different hotel brands ranging from economy to luxury lodging. What this franchisee in Elko, Nevada is doing is definitely out of the norm.
This article rightfully calls out a hotelier doing wrong. In this same spirit, I would like to see a list of all the hotels with addresses that decided to SELL OUT America and become secret migrant hotels during the Brandon administration. I consider these hotels to be tainted, scorned, and unworthy of receiving any future patronage from me. If any of you have seen a list somewhere, please let me know. Thanks.
To Paul: Yes you’re right…I misspoke. The FTC rule states:… requires businesses in the live-event ticketing and short-term lodging industries to disclose the total price, including all mandatory fees, upfront and prominently. This means that businesses can no longer advertise a lower price and then tack on hidden fees like resort fees, service fees, or cleaning fees later in the booking process.
California outlawed these “junk fees” last year. It’s time for the rest of the states to follow suit!
https://skift.com/2024/06/22/hotels-race-to-comply-with-californias-junk-fee-laws/
Holiday Inn express an IHG Brand is going to end up charging themselves a going out of business fee. This is ridiculous. I normally stay at IHG, but if I come across one that has a fee like that, I’ll go to Comfort suites.
Not all Holiday Inn Express & Suites charge these fees. Please do not bad mouth an entire hotel chain when these fees are not charged by 100% of the brand.