While I think letting Sectur and Profeco know about what happened is important, I think the real aggravation is how stringent Orbitz was about denying any recourse until Chris got involved. It seems that the entire industry is so committed to the “deny, deny, deny – maybe they’ll give up and go away” method of customer (non)service that it makes you sick.

AGAIN, THANK YOU CHRIS for what you do!

Now, this would ALSO be unfair, in that “all inclusive” is an (ahem) very
all-inclusive term, not open to differing interpretations.

But at least it is a possible way to think about the fee that is slightly
less insulting to the hotel guest.

A prepaid, refundable deposit I have NO problems with. Precaution I understand especially if a property tends to run into issues with a the “college crowd”. The fees described on in this story teeter on age discrimination which is BS.

I just object to young people being universally penalized for the irresponsibility of some. I’ve never in my life trashed a hotel room, and I’ve stayed in quite a few between the ages of 18-25.

SECTUR is the Mexican federal secretary of tourism, a body with primarilay concerned with tourism promotion but they do have regulatory and enforcement powers. Charging undisclosed fees is of course against the law, and they do not tolerate this sort of nonsese, and they take complaints very serioulsy.

It is suggested that a complaint be filed with PROFECO – the Mexican consumer protection agency – if the complaint is not resolved (as it was in this case) The PROFECO website in English is http://www.profeco.gob.mx/consumidor/extranjeros.asp They will assist the consumer in resolving the complaint.

Mexico values its tourism industry and unethical behvior is quickly corrected when the proper authorities are involved. Simply invoking PROFECO and SECTUR are often sufficient to resolve any improper charges.

Car rental companies reserve the right to pull your driving record and deny you a rental car if it’s too spotty. I don’t know if they actually do that or not. Similarly, Dollar pulls a credit report if you secure the reservation by a debit card instead of a credit card.

I’m assuming that the hotel has had problems with younger guests. I recall checking into a Residence Inn and the manager explaining that under no circumstances was I to throw a party. That’s they’d had problems with college students renting suites to have parties. I actually had to sign a no party pledge.

Although in retrospect, I think that rather than an additional charge, a higher deposit is more appropriate.

I would agree with you on the car rental issue but I don’t believe that car rental companies take your driving record into account when you rent cars. Please correct me if I’m wrong, I honestly don’t rent cars all that often. Assuming I am right, is fair that a 32 year old person with 6 speeding tickets or a DUI on their driving record doesn’t have to pay a surcharge but that a 24 year old with a spotless driving record does?

I don’t blame insurance for what they do because they take MANY risk factors into account in addition to age. Managing risks based on statistics is what they do.

@ Jess

You hit the nail on the head

I still don’t understand why “under 25″ fees are allowed at hotels to begin with (these are different from the “under 25″ insurance surcharge on rental cars). If the hotels would prefer not to have young adults rent from them, a hidden fee is not an effective deterrent. Aren’t 25 year olds considered adults in Mexico? If their concern is damage caused by the guests, then the credit card number kept for “incidentals” should cover that. It seems that this is just another way for hotels to wring more money out of people who frequent them, instead of treating them well and getting their repeat business.

@Carver – I wonder if the resort would have even allowed Mr. Plaxun to even pay with a separate credit card. If they would, your suggestion sounds like the ideal immediate solution to that situation.

My larger concern is what could Ryan have done differently to protect himself. As much as I want to blame Orbitz, they ultimately did the right thing. And my usual mantra of booking directly with the supplier doesn’t work as the under age surcharge was not disclosed on the internet, yet the front desk refused to let him get the room without paying this charge

At a regular hotel, one would simply leave, but resorts are different.

The best thing would be to pay the underage charge with a different credit card then dispute it with the card company. For those who might be confused and think its unethical, duress is a well accepted reason to dispute a credit card charge.

And no, I’m not currently under 25, but it wasn’t that long ago.

Kudos to Mr Plaxsum for standing up for himself with silly, undisclosed charge.