Ouch, isn’t parking 100 feet away on Camino Del Rio South free? And that Hilton is actually somewhat dumpy by typical Hilton standards.
In response to the OP, I booked my boss into the Excalibur for the CES in early January via Hotels.com and as I recall, the rate included all fees. The idea was that he wouldn’t need his credit card for anything once there because it was totally pre-paid and he would have bitched to me had he been hit up at checkout for a ‘resort fee’. He was also there for a government related contract. Perhaps they don’t do that during CES because their regular room rates are outrageously high already (over $350/night) during that time for a regular generic room.
I wonder if these types of fees have been challenged in court. They seem like undue surprise in an adhesion contract.
It doesn’t seem unreasonable to assume that parking, phone calls, internet, pool, and fitness center are included in the room charge because they are even in cheaper hotels like Comfort Inn.
I’ve become a bit of a Vegas regular. Resort fees are hated by most travelers there. They cover a bunch of things under one fee that there was previously a charge for. Vegas casino hotels are completely different that hotels anywhere else in the US. The basic room rate is usually very cheap, but there is an extra charge for everything. Internet access was a separate fee, the gym was a separate fee, anything that doesn’t involve you sitting in the casino usually had a fee. Then, the hotels started lumping all those amenities under one fee which was mandatory. They figure that a lot of people who are there for a couple days are spending their time on late night gambling/drinking and not worried about missing their workout for a day or two.
The newspapers aren’t delivered to your room, they have to be picked up in the hotel gift shop by showing a key.
That would depend on how surprising they are. The fact that the OP didn’t know he’d be charged them doesn’t mean the hotel didn’t make a reasonable effort to disclose them up front - especially since he wasn’t paying the bill.
Well, as noted, not a word was said about this when I checked in. And during my attempts to get online I did a rather careful check for anything in the room that would tell about this; I found nothing that mentioned the resort fee or any of the items it apparently included.
Bears repeating, the “Resort Fee” is NOT “a-la-carte” charging, but rather the reverse of how the airline/car rental/etc. “undbundling” system works. It’s more like the airlines now started charging a mandatory $35 fee that “included” headphone, 3 minutes on the AirPhone, one cocktail, and one additional piece of luggage, regardless of whether you went ahead and used it.
Some of these fees do cover what USED to be pay-as-you-go options, as well as what used to be part of the room rate. As the table dalej42 linked to indicates, at some locations it’s pitiful what you get for it; I can see the logic in some locations with high-maintenance proper *resort * facilities (golf course, spa, river pool, etc.) deciding that the way to insulate their premium services from downturns and low seasons is to average out the costs + a profit margin and spread that around the whole customer base, but, honestly, free local and long distance phone? The newspaper? I have a smartphone on the unlimited plan for that, dudes.
BTW, in the Vegas strip a lot of the properties provide free parking ANYWAY (even the Caesars/Harrahs no-fee properties).
Outside of resort-y places like Vegas, like Mama Zappa mentioned it’s curious how things work. Marriott’s midbrow road-warrior properties like Courtyard and Springhill Suites give you free WiFi, but the mainline Marriott brand charges you for it on top of the more expensive room. I guess they figure it’s on the expense account.
If the legislature can’t do something about resort fees, they can, and should, pass a law where all mandatory fees need to be calculated and included in the total at the time of booking. That way, consumers can compare apples to apples instead of apples to apples (+ mandatory fertilizer/picking/stocking fee).
Good link from Dale for Vegas resort fees. For those planning on going back to Vegas (or AC for that matter), Harrahs properties (which includes biggies like Caesars, Paris, Ballys, etc) is trying to discriminate themselves against the competition by not charging any resort fees - kind of like Southwest pitching their no-bag-fee policy on commercials.
There would be nothing in the room about rates, since they are so variable. I’m involved in running a conference, and one of the first things we do is to try to negotiate the resort fee off the bill for attendees, or at least give everyone free internet.
I’m curious about what you find out about whether the fee was prepaid. When I have prepaid deals, the only think I might have to cover is restaurant charges billed to the room and pay movies (which I never use anyway.)
I went to a conference in a Palm Springs resort that charged $15 I think - and the parking lot, and resort, was in the middle of the stinking desert with absolutely nothing on any side for at least two miles.
In my opinion resort fees should not be legal. Optional fees for extra services would be fine, but mandatory resort fees should be required to be rolled into the cost of the room. A mandatory fee is just a way of lying about the price of a room.
Things get even murkier when dealing with discount hotels resellers like priceline or hotwire. Hidden mandatory resort fees makes for an uneven game between Hotel A and Hotel B. Suppose Hotel A is willing to sell a room at $60.00 per night but Hotel B says it will sell for $55.00 per night, but charges a hidden 15.00 “resort fee” on top of that. On priceline or hotwire, Hotel A gets screwed. Thus, to stay competitive Hotel A, must now say they are willing to sell the room at 45.00 per night and also charge a hidden fee.
Just make everyone charge what they charge upfront!
I didn’t need to know what the exact amount was - what would have been nice is some indication of what was included. After trying and failing to get an internet connection, I decided to give up and wait until at the show the next day (where in fact access was good). Had I known internet service was supposed to be included in a (rather stiff) mandatory fee, I would certainly have called and asked that it be made to work or the fee reduced.
The basic problem isn’t so much the fee as the failure to disclose it.
I’ve learned that the fee wasn’t double-billed. It was the intent of the person who booked the room to have all fees included, but this one escaped.
The company will reimburse me for this charge, but I intend to take up the matter with the hotel, as I think their behavior is sleazy and borderline dishonest.
I just checked my confirmation for my Vegas booking and found the following as the 2nd paragraph of the confirmation:
For your convenience, a daily resort fee of $22.40 (inclusive of applicable lodging tax) is added to your room account and includes the following hotel services: fitness center access at , high-speed internet access, local and 800 calls, in-suite private label coffee, two bottles of water per suite, per day, and daily newspaper.
Since we’re only staying for one night before heading to Death Valley - that’s a couple expensive bottles of water.
There is absolutely nothing borderline dishonest about this practice.
Er, the “borderline” is the part I’m quibbling - nothing borderline about it, it’s out and out scammy. I think you’ve got a GOOD chance of arguing it with the hotel since they didn’t provide one service (the internet). Though of course THEY’ll try to tell you that you should have complained about it at the time!
Yeesh. Do you have to stay on the Strip (or wherever)?
When we were in Vegas last summer we stayed in a nearby town (Henderson). Very affordable new facility, no bullshit fees; when we wanted to go to the strip one evening we drove and parked free at a hotel parking garage (then didn’t spend a dime at that hotel, oh well!).
I’ve kind of taken the opposite approach - whenever I get unexpected fees, I just don’t tip, so that I break even. I know it’s a dick move, but whatever. Fighting over all of that stuff is just too much hassle.
I know. I went to a meeting there, took a look at the parking rate in the meeting material, and decided to take BART. Big bucks for parking in the middle of the city isn’t unreasonable. The parking structure near Moscone isn’t quite that expensive, but it is pretty pricey also. What I objected to is charging for parking in a place where you could park every car in the country and a few 747s and still have room to spare.
When I check in to a hotel, I usually initial something saying I understand the rate. I just stayed at the Disneyland Hotel, paid by the conference, and there I didn’t - though there was an additional parking charge, which was either waived or picked up by the conference. Do you remember if you signed anything? I’m pretty sure that I’ve been told of the resort fees in places where I actually paid. I was wondering if it slipped through the cracks since you didn’t see the reservation information and they assumed more or less it was picked up. Resort fees are still sleazy, I’m not disputing that, and they should be mentioned in large friendly letters, not in the fine print.
- nothing borderline about it, it’s out and out scammy. I think you’ve got a GOOD chance of arguing it with the hotel since they didn’t provide one service (the internet). Though of course THEY’ll try to tell you that you should have complained about it at the time!