Resort fees being addressed at the federal level, helping travelers

Help is on the way for travelers frustrated with great hotel rates that disappear once mandatory resort, amenity or "urban convenience" fees are added. The fees are said to cover everything from internet and fitness room access to bottles of water and can average from a few dollars to more than $30 a day, according to ResortFeeChecker. com, with some properties in Las Vegas charging daily resort fees of $45. KillResortFees.

com cites one Miami resort that tacks on a hefty $160. 50 nightly fee to its rates. "It's called drip pricing," says Robert Cole, a senior research analyst at travel research company Phocuswright. Cole calls the practice "consumer-hostile" because consumers often click on an appealing advertised nightly room price only to find that a few clicks later the real nightly room rate is much higher.

Adding resort fees separately also allows hotels to cut commissions to travel advisors and online sites, "since the hotels only pay commissions on the lower room rate, not the additional fees," said Albert Herrera, senior vice president of global product partnerships at the Virtuoso travel network. Hilton, named in the Nebraska suit, said in a statement that "resort fees are charged at less than two percent of our properties globally, enable additional value for our guests, and are always fully disclosed when booking through Hilton channels. " In December, a judge denied Marriott's motion to dismiss the D. C.

case, which has now moved on to the discovery phase. Marriott said in a statement that it plans to continue a "vigorous fight" against the case, adding that "Marriott's policy is to disclose resort fees during the booking process so that it is reflected in the total price shown before the guest completes the reservation process. " In October, 2019, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts did not admit liability, but agreed to pay a $6 million settlement to resolve claims in a class action lawsuit regarding deceptive resort fees. The company said in a statement that it believes it has always complied with laws and called the settlement "amicable in principle.

" Meanwhile, booking companies are trying to get hotels to be more upfront about their fees as well. At the beginning of 2020, Booking. com began charging properties commissions on both the advertised room rate and any extra resort and mandatory fees charged to customers.