Some hotels mess around with a $15-a-day resort fee or a $5 “tipping” charge. But the Holiday Inn Surfers Paradise on Australia’s Gold Coast doesn’t bother with piddly double-digit extras. Oh no, it socked guest Vicki Noble with a $163-per-person “car racing” fee and a bizarre $230 “building access levy after she had confirmed her four-night stay.
Did I say “car racing” fee?
Yes. The letter Noble got from her online travel agent, Asiarooms.com, explains it best:
Please be advised that all guests staying during the Lexmark Indy (18th – 22nd October) will require 4 day Indy passes to enter the hotel. These can be purchased through Ticketek for $163.40 per person. Guests will also be required to pay a Building Access Levy of $230 direct to the hotel upon check in. This is a compulsory charge determined by the Lexmark Indy organizers.
Please make sure that clients are aware of this.
Needless to say, Noble was not happy about this surprise fee. After all, she had already paid for her room in full.
“I find it very unfair that I made the booking months ago and nothing was mentioned at the time of booking about these two issues,” she says. “I feel it should have been made clear at the time of booking, not two weeks before our intended stay.”
I agreed with her. So I contacted Holiday Inn’s parent company, InterContinental Hotels Group, on her behalf. A few days later, Noble received the following response:
Dear Vicki,
I have been made aware of the situation around your concerns re charges applicable to your booking for 18-21/10/07 at the Holiday Inn Surfers paradise.
I have responded to our guest relations contact who is in Utah. Owing to time differences and the need to resolve your booking I would be glad to hear from you and hopefully arrive at a suitable solution for all.
The two main considerations are;
1. The fees which you have raised as concerns are out of control of the hotel and are paid to the rights body governing the Indy Race but collected by the hotel. As also tickets are part of being in the hotel over the three days of the Indy carnival.Our wholesaler who has distributed the rooms to you – the ultimate user – I believe had full information re these applicable charges.
2. If your visit is not to view / experience the car racing then I would like to recommend an alternative accommodation – hopefully at the Crowne Plaza Surfers Paradise – 2.5km south of this venue.
I look forward to your reply and hope I can gain a good outcome for you,
Kind regards
Donald Murray
Executive Assistant Manager
In other words, the online agency through with Noble booked the room should have told her about the fees when she paid for the room. Not two weeks before she checked in.
“I see it this way,” she told me. “The issue is not if we want or do not want to go to the car racing. The issue is these charges should have been stated when we made our original booking. I have made many bookings online in the past and have never come across anything like before.”
Neither had I.
With Noble’s visit to the Gold Coast fast approaching, she was running out of options. Should she find an alternate hotel? Pay the fees? Then, yesterday, she received the following e-mail:
Hello Vicki,
I am glad to be coming back to you with good news! I have just received a note from our wholesaler who has sent me a note agreeing to cover the cost of the Building levy and also the race passes. I certainly sympathise with the frustration caused by the absence of full information around this booking and hope you may now enjoy a worry free stay and a great holiday in Surfers Paradise.
As you will be arriving during the Indy Race period please be aware that there will be certain restrictions to movements around the hotel during this period. On arrival at the hotel you will be issued with the race passes and also security access wrist bands for each day of your stay.
If you provide me with a mailing address I can forward a more detailed information booklet about the Indy event which will help you plan your stay.
Best regards,
Donald Murray
Holiday Inn Surfers Paradise
I think Asiarooms.com did the right thing by covering her fees. Noble shouldn’t have had to move to another property, since she had already paid for her room. Nor should anyone have hit her up for a “car racing” fee two weeks before she checked in.
This illustrates a broader problem with the way hotel rooms are sold, and suggests it is always a good idea to phone the hotel when you’ve reserved a room through a third party. You never know what kinds of surcharges might be waiting for you — surcharges your online agent forgot to tell you about.
✓ Get the latest travel news, tips and commentary from Elliott’s E-Mail, the subversive newsletter from industry gadfly Christopher Elliott. You’ll travel like a pro. Sign up here. It’s free.
Sign up for my 
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I think the problem here is that it’s unclear who’s responsible for the booking. Is it the wholesaler, of the hotel chain? I think it’s (both) their responsibility to make sure that the offers are ok. Once they wholesaler has sold a certain hotel room, THEY are responsible for the booking and THEY should have reimbursed Vicky, as THEY did not inform here properly. In this case, the hotel should go after the wholesaler. It’s not Vicky’s problem they didn’t communicate well.
It’s odd that when customers fail to meet their end of a contract/booking, they get slapped with fees and charges up the wazoo, but when companies do the same, they always hide behind finger pointing hoping their mistake will disappear.
PS: I like the edit tool on the comments.
These special event fees should be added into the price of the room BEFORE the rate is posted on the web or the hotel should eat it.
The problem is that the hotel is inside the circuit. HOWEVER, some people may have passes or tickets arranged separately. There shouldn’t be an automatic charge for a ticket because people might already have their access arranged. The other “access levy” is ridiculous. That’s just a way for someone else to make more money. I can’t believe Champ Car is charging the $230 – but if they are, it’s shooting themselves in the foot.
The moral of the story is to book directly with the travel provider. Had Vicki Noble booked directly with the hotel, the hotel and they failed to disclose the charges to Vicki, the hotel would have had a hard time unilaterally adding these new charges.
I’m wondering what Lexmark has something to say about all this since their name is out there.
I reckon this will not be an issue this year….