Hotel Hidden Charges
Excerpts from
Hidden charges add up to big hotel bills
I felt like the luckiest guy in Las Vegas a couple weeks ago when I checked into the Tropicana Resort hotel. I'd gotten a cheap rate at a time when most other Strip hotels were charging two or three times as much.
But I soon found a potential trap that could have made my stay a lot more expensive. The front-desk clerk warned me long-distance telephone charges were $14.40 for the first minute, $1 a minute thereafter.
“. . . This discovery underscores a problem with hotels. It isn't just outrageous taxes and fees that drive up the cost of a room, it's the surcharges and extras, as well. Overnight parking charges. Resort fees. Bottles of water from the minibar that cost $4. The list goes on and on.”
The Tropicana turned out to be far from the worst in the surcharge department. . . . If you decide to leave a car parked at the Hilton New York, the cost is as much as I paid for my room in Las Vegas . . .”
. . . of course, there's more pressure than ever on hotels to keep basic rates low so they can trounce competitors on Internet travel sites. Then they try to add on fees when the guests visit.
Woodworth says not only is he getting used to seeing $10 resort fees tacked on his bill—whether he uses the pool or not—but recently ran into a daily $3 “housekeeping fee” at a Phoenix hotel.
“What comes next?” he asks. “A couple bucks for the sheets?”
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