Destination Fee BS
 

I was going to add this to zebec's thread on redemption flights but it's too much of a digression so I thought I'd start my own.

I was in NY last weekend with my sisters and nieces and booked two rooms at the Hyatt Civic Times Square (TS is my least favourite location in NY but the best rate we could get for the types of rooms we wanted). The hotel was fine but I really resent having to pay $30 per room per night for this 'destination fee' (sometimes called a resort fee) which gives you things like the coffee maker that was formerly in every room for free. We also got bottles of water and coupons for the types of things no one ever uses like a 3-minute (3-minute!) makeover at one of Macy's cosmetic counters and some other stuff which, even if you did use it, would not cost you $30 a day.

Now, this wasn't a surprise -- they do have to tell you when you book, but that doesn't make it any more palatable. When my sister questioned it as she was paying, the desk clerk told her that all the hotels in NYC must charge this fee. THIS IS NOT TRUE. It was an outright lie. You can google which hotels charge it and if the name isn't on that list, that hotel very likely does not charge it (although you should check when booking just to be safe).
My preferred hotel in NY, the Omni Berkshire, does not charge this fee.

I can understand it if you're going to an actual resort where you may want to use their snorkeling gear or use a beach umbrella and those costs should be covered by the resort fee. But this destination fee in NY -- what a ripoff!!!!

You're so right gtg. I wish they would force the hotels to quote the entire price when booking as it often makes a substantial difference. I call BS too!! :-L

Not even then. It's a short leap to charging for the sand that sticks to your feet while you're walking on the beach.

Year before last my friend and I booked a 49.00 per night room at Treasure Island in Las Vegas and when all was charged and done that room became 110.00 per night. It's even worse now because they have added feeds to pay for the Raiders new stadium and most of the people who paid for it won't be able to afford to go to a game there.......sorry I digress, but it IS another fee and something I don't want to have to pay for, but there it is.

I told the last hotel I stayed at how pissed I was over all the fees. Just make the darn room 125.00 per night, fine, done, don't add all the crap, itemize it so you can rub my nose in it while I pay the bill. I'm trying to think when all this add on fee crap began? Can't recall.

Resort/destination fees are fraudulent ways to appear to have a lower daily room rate and avoid the rather high hotel taxes that are based on a percentage of the room rate. A search result with the real rate (room plus mandatory fee) will cause a hotel to lose bookings to an apparently cheaper place that does use fees.. Customers are defrauded. Putting part of the real daily charge outside the apparent room rate defrauds the local taxing authority of revenus. It's like an ultra low priced airline that gets its money by charging fees. Will we see a hotel chain that rents its rooms for $1.99 a night with a $200 destination fee?

Seems some people are trying to do something:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/trave...els-or-guests/

Well, I wish them luck but I think those fees are here.to stay,. I think a consumer strike is the most effective tactic and I'm going to make a point of seeking out hotels that don't charge resort fees as often as I can.

I assume you are speaking of the Hyatt Centric.

It depends on the hotel in New York as to how valuable or not that fee you are talking about actually is. Last time we stayed in the city the fee in our hotel could be used toward a number of thing including food and drink. I don't like these fees either but to say they are totally useless and a total ripoff depends IMO on what the fee provides or can be used for.

I believe the fees are here to stay but we should be quoted the full price when booking.

Dukey, yes, you're right, it was the Hyatt Centric.
I think our 'treats' included a 10% discount on food (not drinks) in the hotel but as I never eat in the hotel anyway, it had no value to us. Free Wi-Fi was on there also and you get free wi-fi if you're a member of any loyalty program; same with bottled water; coffee and tea in room meant an Nespresso coffee maker and coffee makers have been in rooms since the beginning of time.
There were a few other discounts on things but even if you used them, the discounted amounts wouldn't add up to $30 a day.
By the way, at the Omni, if you're a member, they bring you hot coffee or tea in carafes every morning with real cups and saucers and cloth napkins. Now THAT's a perk and it costs me nothing!

"Last time we stayed in the city the fee in our hotel could be used toward a number of thing including food and drink"

Sorry, I meant to add this. I think by 'drink' it was non-alcoholic, right? And the discount on food was probably 10%. So yes, if you ate three meals a day in the hotel maybe you used up the whole value of the fee but I'm guessing that wasn't the case. So say the two of you ate a $50 breakfast in the hotel every day. That's a $5 discount/day. You were probably paying $30 a day in fees. Wouldn't you rather pay the full price of your breakfast (or whatever other 'offer' you use) and not pay the fee?

I have no idea how they can get away with adding that fee to existing reservations, sugarmaple. Isn't that called 'bait and switch'? I'm not sure but I think that's illegal.
Any chance you'd book a non-fee hotel and cancel at the Hyatt and let them know why?

Pisses me off too. It's getting harder and harder to find a hotel in Vegas that doesn't charge a resort fee. I refuse to pay them, which limits my hotel choices, but since Vegas isn't a big draw for us anymore, easy enough to avoid.

Sorry to hear it's catching on elsewhere. Just tell me what the total price is up front! I feel the same way about airlines.

Also recently looked at a hotel in Auckland that came to the top of the page due to it's low price, only to click through to the booking page to discover the taxes were more than the hotel. What a bunch of crap.

The hotels want the lowest "base room rate" possible so that the hotel will come up first when travelers use booking sites and search by "lowest rate". Also apparently it has something to do with travel agents and booking sites taking their 10% or 8% fee or whatever they get. Like in the Treasure Island example above, the booking site/travel agent gets $4.90 per night on a $49.00 room but would have gotten $11.00 per night had Treasure Island just made the room rate all-inclusive.

If you use "booking.com" I've noticed that they always include a little blurb noting "destination fees" and "resort fees" under the room rate and say that they are not included and will be collected at check-in time.

To answer what I believe was the question: no, our fee was fully applicable toward food and drink.

What difference does it make what they call it?

Upon booking they give you the whole price: room, bkfst, destination fee, room tax, sales tax, parking, refrigerator stocking fee, toilet bowl cleanser, etc.

If you can find a cheaper place, go there.

((I))

Glad that worked out for you, sugarmaple.

At our Hyatt in NY, the fee was $30+tax which I think was an additional $4/night, so $102 total for each room. We would have gotten a 10% discount on food (no beverages). Since I don't eat breakfast and am never at the hotel for lunch or dinner, that food discount is no use to me.
I could have made much better use of that $102 during my 4-day stay given my choice of what I wanted to spend it on.

Well, if you used the entire per day fee towards food and drink, then it was probably worth it to you. That is, if you were fine with eating in the hotel.
My preference would be to have my money in my wallet and choose where I want to eat and drink, whether it's in the hotel or elsewhere.

In Las Vegas you can get a room comp but still have to pay the resort fee.

hhmmmm!!

So far I have avoided this fee but will.be watching for it now.

Always look at the total price in places were resort fees by any other name are common. In Palm Springs area, you may also get charged separately for using the spa, parking (even self-parking) as well as the "resort fee".

In all my trips to Vegas over the years, not once have I utilized a hotel pool or spa, so the whole resort fee really puts me off.

Anyone planning to visit Vegas might want to take a look at this:

https://www.lasvegasjaunt.com/resort-fees/

If it's not optional, it's part of the room price, no matter how you break it down. These fees aren't about going to an ala carte pricing model. These aren't really fees at all, they're just an attempt to keep shoppers from making easy price comparisons. It's bait and switch.

If you want to bill separately for wi-fi, parking or breakfast, that I don't care about. I can check the amenities list before I book and decide then. Not looking for all-inclusive and I'm used to making sure the stuff I want is included. But when I can't easily see what the room itself will cost to spend a night, that's just screwing with consumers.

Cue vacation rentals, be they apartments or houses. We 'hotel' as infrequently as possible nowadays. That attitude has served us well.
I agree, GTG, that kind of fee is such BS.
I am done. The end.

I don't mind an apartment for a longer stay somewhere and it certainly has its own benefits but I love staying in a hotel and for me, that's part of the vacation experience.

The third-party sites such as booking.com, Expedia and Priceline seem to do a pretty good job of disclosing the total price and additional charges that the hotel is known to add. Probably better than the hotel's own website. Can't say I've ever been surprised or had difficulty finding out the total price.

I wasn't surprised by the destination fee. It was made clear when I booked the rooms. I just resented having to pay it. I would have shopped around for a no-fee hotel at a decent rate but I had other considerations because I was traveling with a group.
The Hyatt in Times Square would certainly not have been my first choice of hotel!

I hadn't realized that consolidator sites were managing to put the combined price+fee out there in the search results so that you can see the price totals next to each other. It sounded like the "fees" weren't revealed until you'd hit the book now button. I haven't been back recently to the sort of places where this has become a practice and haven't seen it in Asia or down here (yet)

Hiding costs seemed to be the only logical reason to break out the cost charged for the pool access (etc). To make the hotel look cheaper next to a price listing of other hotels.

Doesn't make sense to me why they'd bother but if they want to say the room is $150 and a made-up added fee is $50, but that wouldn't bother me at all as long as the amount advertised to me next to other hotels reflects either the final $200 or numbers I have to add myself. Hiding them a click or two down would be deceptive.

If it were the cost of the room, I could deal with that. But by calling it a destination fee which offers nothing of interest to me, they're essentially insisting that it's not the room that's costing me money, but a bunch of stuff I don't want. I'm only interested in purchasing lodging. If it's not the room rate, then don't charge me for it! If I want that other stuff, I'll buy it.

goddesstogo... I don't get how NYC hotels can charge a resort fee. They are hotels in a big city. I think it is a money rort.
I visit NYC because my son has been living there for the past 18 months. I can't stay with him because he shares. I hate looking at NYC hotels. They are ridiculously priced, and now they all think they are big resorts. cray cray.
I will not stay in a hotel that charges a resort fee.

I'm sure you can find many hotels that don't charge a destination fee but prices vary so much depending on the time of year too. August can be do-able. October? Crazy high!
My friend goes in January and gets great rates!

Maybe stay in Brooklyn and take the subway.