How I tried to outwit the St Regis New York $50 ‘Daily Destination Fee’

I spent three nights last week at St Regis New York.  Whilst I used 60,000 Marriott Rewards points per night, the hotel was selling for $1,100 + tax per night for a standard room.  This seems to be their normal peak rate looking at busy weeknights over the next few weeks.

I was lucky to be upgraded to a 100 sq m suite, selling for $2,800 + tax per night.  A review of that will follow next week.

Yes, despite this pricing, St Regis New York has jumped on the ‘resort fee’ / ‘Daily Destination Fee’ bandwagon.

Whilst this sort of behaviour is illegal in the UK, it is rampant in US resorts and has now spread to New York.  Irrespective of the rate you agree on booking, although if you book direct it is clearly flagged on the website, when you arrive you are told there is a compulsory $50 + tax per room ‘Daily Destination Fee’.  To quote from the card I was given:

“Our Daily Destination Fee includes experiences and offers designed to enhance your stay in New York City:

• $50 per day Food & Beverage Credit (excludes mini bar) and
• $50 per day Laundry or Dry Cleaning Credit and
• $25 per day Fodera Hair Salon Credit (excludes manicures) and
• Complimentary High Speed Internet Access, Unlimited Local, Long Distance and International Calls and
• Two Museum Tickets per day to either MoMA or The Metropolitan Museum of Art”

Two of these five ‘offers’ should be immediately ignored.  Manicures, excluded from the hair salon offer, are the only thing the salon offers for under $50.  Marriott offers free internet in all hotels globally to anyone who books direct.

It is important to note that the credit cannot be rolled over from day to day.

I was determined to get full value for this forcibly extracted fee.  How did I do?

Day 1

Here was my first surprise.  The $50 Daily Destination Fee runs on calendar days whilst your stay will usually run from, say, 2pm to 11am.

This means that you don’t get any credit for spend on the day you check out.  So:

you need to spend $50 on the day you check in, which if you’re flying from the UK is likely to be late evening so you don’t have much time

you can’t use it towards breakfast on your final morning, because charges on check-out day do not count

I wasn’t to be beaten though.  I headed down to the King Cole Bar after checking in and ordered a $20 glass of wine and a $28 plate of lobster-filled potato skins, below.  $50 credit extinguished.  The credit is offset against the total bill including tax and gratuities.

Day 2

If you were suitably sad, you could bring some laundry over from the UK in order to fully use your $50 daily laundry or dry cleaning credit, but I didn’t.  However, I purposely only packed one spare shirt for the four days.

After breakfast (free due to my Marriott Platinum Premier status, so I didn’t need to use my $50 food and beverage credit for it) I made up a laundry bag and sent my shirt from the previous day off for a same-day wash and iron.  $19 of value clawed back.

I was having dinner with a friend so I couldn’t use the $50 food and beverage credit in the hotel in the evening.  I decided to have a lunch in the hotel instead, ordering room service mid-afternoon whilst doing an email tidy-up before everyone in the UK went home.  My lobster roll came in at $28 plus $8 room service charge + 18% compulsory tip + taxes, offset by the $50 credit.  Bargain.

I then messed up.  I had planned to hit the Museum of Modern Art which is just two blocks away. However, in the city that never sleeps, MOMA goes to bed at 5.30pm and I had left it too late for Day 2.

I checked out the hairdressers but at $75 and upwards for a gents cut the $25 credit I was allowed to claim did not seem like a bargain.

Day 3

After my free breakfast (which, given that the welcome glass of orange juice they give you is billed at $15 with another $9 for coffee, and that their premium omelette is $125, it needs to be), I sent my shirt from Day 2 off to same-day laundry.  Another $19 of value.

After lunch, I finally got to spend a couple of hours in the Museum of Modern Art.

I only needed one ticket but, as I was entitled to two, I took two and gave one away to someone queuing at the museum ticket desk.  $25 value for my ticket and someone else got $25 of value too.

With no dinner date, I popped back down to the bar in the evening.  A $19 glass of wine and a $22 plate of calamari swallowed my $50 daily food and beverage credit.

Day 4

This was check-out day.  As I noted above, any charges you incur on your final day are not valid against the Daily Destination Fee because they count charges on your check-in day instead.

This would only have been a problem if I was relying on the $50 food and beverage credit to pay for breakfast, but I got this for free via my Marriott status anyway.

In total ….

Over my three nights, I paid the hotel ($50 + tax x 3) $171 in ‘Daily Destination Fee’.

In return I got two shirts laundered, one MOMA ticket (and gave another away), one lobster roll lunch and two ‘one food plate and a glass of wine’ dinners in the bar.

Now, you probably think I’m going to say “but I’d rather have had the $171 in my pocket”.  To a large extent this in true.

On the other hand, part of me was happy that I had been forced to spend some time and money in the hotel.  I probably wouldn’t have gone in the lovely bar otherwise, my lobster roll lunch would probably have been a Starbucks takeaway at my desk, I may not have got to MOMA (although I do normally visit when I’m there so that is less clear cut) and I would have been looking a bit scruffier without a freshly washed and ironed shirt each day.

If the hotel was still offering 3,000 Marriott Rewards points per night on top as part of the fee, which it was last year before it started cutting back, the return on my $50 would actually have been good value.

If I had been here with someone else, I would have got more value from the MOMA tickets – because we would have used two, worth $50 – and we would probably have used the full $50 daily laundry and dry cleaning credit.  We may even have got to the Metropolitan Museum as well.  On that basis we’d probably have turned a profit.

I should add that, if you don’t have Marriott Platinum or higher status, using the $50 food and beverage credit for breakfast is well worth it – except on your last day when it won’t count.  The breakfast room is lovely and it is 100% a la carte waiter service.  You may even feel grateful that you were effectively forced into it.

Of course the real point ….

…. is that it is ludicrous that a hotel which routinely charges $1,100 + tax for a standard room on a busy night, and rarely less than $800 + tax, feels the need to mess about like this for the sake of $50. 

The hit to their image, and the staff time needed to adjust every single guest bill, surely can’t justify it.

But what did I actually think of St Regis New York?

Good question.  Look out for my review next week.

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How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards (April 2024)

There are various ways of earning Marriott Bonvoy points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

The official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card comes with 20,000 points for signing up, 2 points for every £1 you spend and 15 elite night credits per year.

You can apply here.

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points by converting American Express Membership Rewards points at the rate of 2:3.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Marriott Bonvoy Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Hilton Honors Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points indirectly:

• American Express Gold (20,000 bonus Amex points)
• American Express Rewards Credit Card (10,000 bonus Amex points)

and for small business owners:

• American Express Business Gold (20,000 bonus Amex points)
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The conversion rate from American Express to Marriott Bonvoy points is 2:3.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Marriott Bonvoy points. 

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)