We Need To Expose Hotels That Have Hidden Fees
 

I attended a lawyers CLE event in San Francisco and booked 4 nights at the Villa Florence Hotel – Feb 9 thru 13, and paid in advance. Upon checking out on the morning of the 13, I advised of a couple of items obtained thru the mini-bar that I should be charged for and was presented with my final bill, which should have been for those little extras. On my bill was a reoccurring charge of $28 a night (plus tax) for something labeled “Admin Fee.” When I inquired as to what the heck Admin Fee was all about, I was advised that that was to cover the various amenities that the hotel provided.

Amenities? What amenities? If this was to cover usage of the Elevator, my FitBit will verify that I used the stairs (need the exercise). Use of Housekeeping? Sorry but any investigation will verify that when I checked in, the “Do Not Disturb” sign was put outside the door and never removed until checkout. I live in hotels so am quite capable of making my own bed and don’t need fresh towels every day.

I strongly suggested to the young lady at the desk that these charges were completely fraudulent (my travel agent was not advised of these when making my reservation) and need to be removed from my bill. She explained that she did not have the authority but would take it up with the hotel manager – which after repeated inquires I determined to be Robert Hendrix. No credit card statement was signed and I left to an anxious driver waiting to take me to the airport.

On the ride to the airport I calculated that based on an approximate number of rooms and $28 a night, this hotel could be netting between $1.5 to 1.9 million in extra revenue – likely hidden amongst the charges on the typical visitor’s lengthy statement. That should provide for a handsome little executive bonus at the end of the year!

On February 14 at approximately 2:00 pm, one day after returning home, I have yet to hear anything from the hotel, as I did ask to be advised of what they intended to do and they had my email address. So I went online to check my Visa charges. There I see a charge for what I’m guessing were the items in the mini-bar and a second posting giving my Visa a credit. The amount of the credit would suggest that the Hotel was crediting me one night’s stay as an apology for being caught trying to put their hand in my pocket. So, I thought fine, let’s get back to the more important matters at hand.

BUT, wait. This little story gets even better.

On Feb 17 I needed to go back online to check my Visa statement and noticed . . . the credit that I had been given had now mysteriously disappeared. In it’s place were now postings backdated to February 13, a day earlier. In other words, the hotel has acted as though to pretend to provide a credit for a few days and then later, reverse that credit and hope I didn’t notice. And unfortunately for this establishment I have paper printouts to verify everything that I’m reporting.

Agree that hotels have no right to make charges they don't advise you of.

I have never been to a hotel recently that didn't ask me to sign off on the accommodation and room rate when I checked in. If the item was not listed there I don't see how they can charge it unless it is clearly an extra - mini-bar or similar.

Sounds like you are going to pursue this--good for you!

You might also want to bring this to the attention of travel consumer advocate, Christopher Elliott, who writes a column for the Washington Post and other publications. He would be interested in your issue and can be helpful if you have problems getting this charge removed from your account. (However, as you were attending a CLE event, I figure you can handle it yourself.)

I went on line and "booked" the cheapest room I could find at the hotel in question--two nights at $249.

The total charge was $645, which is $147 more than the room charge of $498.

When I clicked "Price Breakdown," I discovered that the $147 represented $81 occupancy tax, $10 employee health care surcharge, and $56 facility fee.

I have seen "resort fees" at many resorts, but I have not yet encountered a "facility fee." And, I have not encountered an "employee health care surcharge" in my travels.

These charges are extremely unexpected and annoying. However, they are disclosed to those who investigate because they have been warned (as I was) that something underhanded is going on.

HTtY

I exposed myself in a hotel.

Much of the CLE courses are expensive or informercial dressed in a suit and tie, any way.

I would speak to the organizers of the CLE classes and ask for transparency in hotel bills, as they are in some indirect way a beneficiary of the event.

Airlines now make 25% of their revenue from fees. Banking from ATM's has become a cash cow for banks.

There are all sorts of legal scams.

The health care and occupancy taxes are one thing - they're charged by law and don't directly benefit he hotel. The "facility fee" on the other hand is just a charge that goes directly to the hotel's bottom line - why not charge a fee for towels and soap?

>>(my travel agent was not advised of these when making my reservation)<<

I would double check this with the travel agent. I find it hard to believe that a travel agent would not know what the price of the room is and the associated extras. After all, you said it was prepaid. What precisely was prepaid? Room only or room and breakfast or room, breakfast and delegate fees (coffees etc) or ????? Did the travel agent prepay as part of a block booking for the conference? If so, they must know what they prepaid and if so they must have provided you with a hotel confirmation with price and some info on paying extras directly to the hotel and maybe some idea of what those extras would be. It's pretty basic to know what your prepaid room rate includes and what you are likely to have to pay when you check out.

There aren't too many options for where this went wrong, either the travel agent didn't pass on the info to you or the hotel didn't pass to the travel agent or the info was passed to you on an itinerary/invoice but you missed it.

More and more places are charging resort fees. I think just about all of the Vegas hotels now do.

At first it was all places that provided some service that you don't pay extra for even if you don't use it. This could be a pool or a shuttle bus to some of the attractions.

Now it's for nothing that they can explain. Employee Health Care surcharge? Give me a break!!!

If their expenses have increased they should increase their rates. But they don't want you to see it unless you specifically look for it.

They don't want it to be visible at the time you are comparing rates.

Threads like this will cause potential customers to look for these extras at the time they're doing their initial search.

The employee health care surcharge is San Francisco law (restaurants too). Businesses can build it into their prices but most don't - it's added to the bill with a notation that that's what it's for.

Employee Health Care surcharge?

That is because they are being political.

As sf7307 wrote they can build it into their prices but most don't. They don't want potential clients to know about it while comparing prices.

There's nothing wrong with charging for things as long as you know about it from the start. Then you can make a valid comparison.

Seems like something your Travel Agent should have known about?

>>Seems like something your Travel Agent should have known about?<<

That is what I said. The TA should have known esp if they block booked the hotel for the conference. But we don't know who prepaid the reservation, whether it was the OP or the TA, we don't know if it was a booking from some sort of allocation reserved for the conference with one TA looking after the bookings or if it was booked as an individual reservation, we don't know what was mentioned on the itinerary/invoice regarding extras to be paid on check-out, we don't know if other people who attended also complained about unexpected charges.

I agree the OP's travel agent is the culpable one here and that however annoying the fees are they are published and the professional should have been on top of it.

The fees aren't front and center but they are not hidden. They're definitely listed as a separate line item in the price breakdown at the hotel's website. Booking.com also says they are not part of the price you are paying b.com but will be charged at the hotel.

<i>Supplements will not be calculated automatically in the total costs and have to be paid separately in the hotel.

A security deposit will be charged at time of check in for incidental purposes. Please contact the property for the amount. The resort fee includes access to the fitness center, access to the business center, morning newspapers, coffee in rooms and WiFi.</i>

Mandatory resort or facility fees at hotels catering to business clientele pi$$ me off. Build them, or some portion of them, into the cost of the room. And have people who use the services pay individually for them.

I also find it annoying when hotel's have these facility fee/resort fee addons that are mandatory, but some do. I suppose this one couldn't really call it a "resort fee" as it's not a resort. Arguing about how you didn't use the elevator is pointless, every hotel I've been in that had them, they were mandatory, it didn't make the slightest bit of difference if you used the items or not.

However, I do not believe these are hidden or not disclosed, which would be illegal. Who knows what the credit card issue is, could be someone reversed it but didn't have the authority to, so it was changed or it could be something totally different who knows.

Out of curiosity, I went to the hotel's actual website and that admin fee is very clearly notated when you check a room rate, such as trying to book one day. It isn't hidden at all, there is an original rate quoted that clearly says "without taxes and fees", and there is a total shown which DOES include that admin fee. And if you click on the detailed breakdown, it shows you the admin fee. So you can't even book on their own website without it being included. On booking.com, they are clearly listed below the price as additional and you don't even have to click on anything to see them (if you pick a prepaid rate).

This sounds like a travel agent's fault, if you use one and they aren't being comprehensive in describing fees to you. Why would one use a travel agent and then prepay the bill yourself? Personally, I don't believe they didn't disclose them anywhere in advance, but if that were true, take them to court, that should be a good experience. Christopher Elliott is always handling cases from people who are clueless and complain about all kinds of trivial things, about 90% of which have no merit.

PJMcKenna, Somebody wasn’t forthright with you about your hotel rate. Please don’t take to heart any blame-the-victim argument. Let us know if you receive an adjustment. I hope you don’t have to charge it up to “lesson learned.” HTtY

Who is blaming the OP? He/she should pitch the hissy fit at the TA not the hotel in this situation.

Sorry, but calling this a "hissyfit" speaks volumes.

These comments are not "blame the victim". Not at all.

They are all blame the Travel Agent, who is supposed to be a professional, and who you are paying to know stuff like this.

Plus sounds like it is clearly there, right on the hotel website and they would known if they'd made their own reservations.