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Hidden Fees

How to avoid having to pay surcharges on your hotel bill
By Paul Lasley and Elizabeth Harryman
We were checking out of a Palm Springs resort about six years ago when we noticed an unexplained $15-a-day charge on our bill. "What's this for?" we asked the desk clerk. "Oh, that's for the free coffee in your room," he answered. The clerk went on to explain that the charge, which he dubbed a "resort fee," also covered use of the gym and towels at the pool. When we told him we hadn't been informed of the fee when checking in, he removed the charge without question.
Since then, we've paid these so-called "resort fees" in more places than we can count. They're particularly common at luxury properties, where it seems charging $300 or more a night isn't enough. On our bills, we've found daily surcharges for Internet access and parking (with an extra charge added every time we took the car out of the lot), as well as a "minibar restocking fee" (in addition to the price of the drink) and a service fee ("tips" for the staff). That's not to mention the charges for phone calls, room service, or an early departure. In some cases, the fees can add up to $100 extra a night.
These kinds of fees aren't likely to go away anytime soon — surcharges brought hotel operators more than $1.4 billion in extra revenue in 2005, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers study. So what can travelers do to avoid them? Here are a few suggestions.

• When making reservations, ask if there are any fees or surcharges beyond the room charge and local taxes.
• If you were not informed about a surcharge in advance, ask to have it removed. In the state of Florida, for example, several major hotel chains are required to disclose any additional fees to their guests in advance.
• If you're booking rooms for a group, ask to have the surcharges waived — hotels will usually make such allowances.
• Join your favorite hotel chain's frequent-guest program. Often chains will give members free use of the fitness center, as well as other amenities. Membership also gives you more negotiating power if you need to have charges removed from your bill.
• Upgrade to a club floor. The room might be more expensive, but club-floor perks often include free Internet access, breakfast, and afternoon snacks.
• Or simply choose a midpriced or budget hotel, such as Courtyard by Marriott, Hampton Inns, Hilton Garden Inns, Homewood Suites by Hilton, Holiday Inn Express, or Microtel Inns & Suites. They don't charge extra for Internet access or parking, and many even include breakfast and use of the fitness center.In fact, Microtel ranked highest in guest satisfaction among economy/budget hotel chains in the J.D. Power and Associates 2005 North American Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study for the fourth year in a row. Microtel provides free wireless Internet access in each room, free local and continental U.S. long-distance phone calls, and complimentary breakfast. Yet rates are typically below $100 a night. "It's nice to be able to call home without burning up cell-phone charges, or to not have to worry about the cost of turning on your computer," says Jon Leven, Microtel's executive vice president of marketing.

With any luck, more major chains will get that message. If they don't, future hotel bills might look something like this: sheets — $15; towels — $10; door lock — $10; light bulb — $5.

This article first appeared in Westways,
the magazine of the Auto Club of Southern California.