Hotels are returning fire in the ‘junk fee’ war

Hotel guests are frustrated with the lack of meaningful relief from junk fees, and take matters into their own hands

Those annoying hotel charges were supposed to disappear after the government declared war on junk fees earlier this year. Instead, hotels have returned fire in the junk fee war by adding surprising new extras.

Key takeaways

• Hotels have gotten creative in their terminology: A resort fee is sometimes called a destination fee, administrative fee, cleaning fee, service fee or a utility fee. Some hotels now charge towel fees, bedsheet fees and concierge fees. These are all mandatory fees on top of the room rate and taxes;
• Sometimes the fee is verbally disclosed to the guest at check-in, but other times a guest might not see it unless they look closely at their checkout invoice;
• Most hoteliers are highly embarrassed when guests call them out over their resort fees. Even a low-level social media campaign is often enough to get these annoying extras removed from a bill.

Get the full story at The Seattle Times