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Hotels adding ‘resort fees’ in New York

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If you’ve ever stayed in Las Vegas or at a US beach resort, you have probably been subjected to ‘resort fees’.

These are, without a doubt, the biggest scam in the hotel business day.  If they weren’t a scam, they wouldn’t have been banned in pretty much everywhere else in the world.  They are a hidden fee – hidden to the extent they are not included in the price shown when searching for a hotel although they are disclosed later – covering, well, nothing in particular.

A typical example would be a $39 per day ‘resort fee’ to cover ‘use of the hotel pool’, internet, local phone calls and some water in your room.  These are all things you would expect to be included in your room rate, and you cannot refuse to pay the fee if you don’t use any of the ‘benefits’ listed.

This Wikipedia article is a good primer on the topic.

A reader recently told me that he had been hit for a ‘resort fee’ in New York.  I found this hard to believe but a bit of research pulled up this article.

One of the New York hotels with a ‘resort fee’ is the Crowne Plaza Times Square.  A quick search for 25th January showed a room available for $135.  This is the number that is used if you rank hotels by price on the IHG website or a third party site like Expedia.  Click ‘rate details’ though and it turns out that a $30 per night ‘resort / service fee’ is added mainly for wi-fi – which should be free to all guests signed up with IHG Rewards Club anyway.

Your $135 headline price becomes, with taxes, $188 per night.  Quite a difference …..

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Comments (90)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Alastair says:
    16 Jan16 January 15:16

    Note last day for Qatar sale, can anyone advice when booking on how to put in BA executive no to gain BA credit.

    Sorry if this is obvious.?

    • Rob says:
      16 Jan16 January 15:20

      If not possible during booking, do it via the Manage My Booking bit of the Qatar website. Booking will not show in ba.com, note, even though your BA number is in it.

    • Jovanna says:
      16 Jan16 January 16:24

      Look for a box when you enter the passenger details. From memory, it’s just under the box for the passenger’s name.

  • TCI says:
    16 Jan16 January 15:54

    Agree resort fees are a disgrace for exactly the reasons outlined.

    Last time i was faced with one was at a hotel in Grand Cayman and I had roughly this conversation:-
    – “in addition, there is an optional resort fee of $50….”
    – “what does that cover?”
    – “it covers use of the pool, gym, towels, water sports equipment and other things….”
    – “what if I don’t want to use any of those things?”
    – “um… … … you still have to pay it.”

    We’ve been here before in the UK with this kind of scam. It was called payment protection insurance and it has cost the banks billions of pounds in compensation payments and legal fees.

    • Fenny says:
      16 Jan16 January 16:13

      “Welcome to America!”

      Different legal system, different rules.

      • TCI says:
        16 Jan16 January 17:07

        Grand Cayman isn’t in the US (though most of its US visitors behave as if it is) – it’s a UK territory…. technically the law there is Cayman Islands law but it’s very similar to English law…

        • Anna says:
          17 Jan17 January 09:10

          TCI, I think the Cayman government has a whole department dedicated to coming up with ways to squeeze money out of visitors! We pay timeshare tax, environmental tax, government tax, tourist tax and now resort fees…Apparently they have recently had a huge crackdown on private homes being advertised on air bnb and similar because they weren’t getting any revenue from it, lol.

    • James says:
      16 Jan16 January 16:55

      an optional fee you have to pay?

  • Frankie says:
    16 Jan16 January 17:25

    Rob do you think there’ll be another similar Qatar sale later in the year or a maybe not as good sale? You say there wont be a better opportunity this year.. I bought my CPH to BKK on 18th May last year which was roughly £1090 at the pre brexit exchange rate and am hoping for a ex EU biz to somewhere on east coat of Australia (ideally Sydney) late December for hopefully £1500/£1600.. Not sure if that’s a silly expectation of a price.

  • the real harry1 says:
    16 Jan16 January 18:02

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/commuter-hit-southern-rail-chaos-wins-3k-back-credit-card-provider/

    • Alan says:
      16 Jan16 January 23:58

      Good on that commuter, although the reporter didn’t address the fact that as they paid with an Amex S75 doesn’t apply!

      • Jonathan says:
        17 Jan17 January 02:12

        Section 75 does apply for Amex credit cards… what makes you think it doesn’t? I used it last year successfully.

        • Alan says:
          17 Jan17 January 08:20

          Not to Amex charge cards it doesn’t – a common misconception! 😉

          https://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/jan/20/section-75-chargeback

          Amex do have their own chargeback scheme and generally excellent customer service though, which often helps but isn’t the same legal guarantee. Using PayPal, Curve, Supercard, etc all invalidates it too.

          • Jonathan says:
            17 Jan17 January 17:38

            Agree, though I think it’s important that people distinguish between charge cards (those branded Amex) and the 3rd party branded cards (which are genuine credit cards). i.e. BAPP Amex is a credit card with legitimate S75 protection.

            From my experience Amex are good at following the principle of S75 even when you may not technically adhere to the rules (i.e. travel agency relationship meaning you don’t have a direct link to supplier when booking hotel room).

          • Alan says:
            17 Jan17 January 17:40

            Totally agree, Jonathan – I think they could have put some sort of caveat in the article though given to make that clearer. Agree Amex CS usually very good though!

          • Alan says:
            17 Jan17 January 17:41

            PS – yes, I had a complaint about a transaction via Paypal and they refunded it to me no problem, even before the retailer responded! It certainly makes me more likely to push more spend via them, which is hopefully the sort of thing they’re looking for!

  • joelyp says:
    16 Jan16 January 18:21

    Andy, I just flew that route out from the sale. Just beware that even at 6pm (when I arrived for 9pm flight) Terminal 2 at Manchester is akin to a ghost town at the weekend airside, with few shops left open – only this and two Pakistan flights go after 4.30!

  • the real harry1 says:
    16 Jan16 January 19:13

    God knows what they are playing at but if you’re flying to Europe at Xmas 2017 or perhaps any other time, check BA prices.

    Our flights out just went to £65 HBO peak (from £135 a couple of days ago, at that price I wouldn’t have used redemptions) and just £45 on peak return 2nd Jan, again a massive drop & makes RFS a total waste of points esp given the £17.50 fee each way (THE best day to fly back as last day before state schools restart).

    So £110 return vs my 15000 Avios + £35 fee, bit of a sickener 🙁

  • CV3V says:
    16 Jan16 January 21:21

    odd, shows in mine, 6 avios per pound until end of month. Normally 3 avios per pound.

  • Eric says:
    17 Jan17 January 07:47

    Hi all

    Qatar have extended the sale by 2 days.

    • JamesW says:
      17 Jan17 January 14:39

      Anything great to CMB Sri Lanka ??

      Anyone spotted anything else fantastic, perhaps not advertised ?

      Does the x4 QMiles still count in the extra 2days ??

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