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Hotel Fee Relapse
Opinion · June 14, 2002

Are hotel surcharges dead? If you've been following the news recently, you might be forgiven for thinking so. A few weeks ago, The New York Times breathlessly reported that because of customer backlash and a slump in business travel, many properties have dropped fees on everything from minibars to room safes. The story suggested that guests would finally pay the actual room rate they'd been quoted rather than being handed a bill with lots of surprise extras on it.

Only a few days later, as if to underscore the point, USA Today published a story that revealed Wyndham International hotels had eliminated phone charges for its best business customers. The newspaper called the move a "radical shift" in an industry best known for adding charges. Members of Wyndham's frequent-stayer program can now make free unlimited, local and domestic long-distance calls, make copies and surf the Internet at no charge.

Unfortunately, the trend-starved travel journalists who brought us this news are only half right. The evidence collected by reputable analysts such as PKF Consulting's Robert Mandelbaum and PricewaterhouseCoopers' Bjorn Hanson shows that the hotels are easing up on the extra fees. But no one knows if the shift will be permanent. In fact, anyone who is familiar with the tenets of capitalism in general, and the lodging industry in particular, will conclude that the fees will make a comeback - and maybe soon.

It's a shame that these newspapers didn't take the opportunity to highlight the real problem, which is the federal government's laissez-faire attitude toward the hotel industry. The lodging business is loosely regulated by a patchwork of state and local laws, but there are virtually no rules on the federal level designed to protect guests from being surprised by frivolous fees.

Is it time to push for new laws that would force a hotel to disclose the exact price you'll pay for your room before you check in? Food and drug manufacturers must disclose the contents of their products by law - why not hotels? But any proposal to force a hotel to reveal its fees upfront would face formidable opposition from the powerful lodging industry lobby, which will stop at nothing to keep the government out of its business.

The disclosure is urgently needed, because there's evidence - mostly anecdotal so far - that hotels are anxious to bring the fees back. After all, these extras tacked on to your bill pad a property's profits. Only a few days after word of the disappearing fees made the rounds, several Internet newsgroups were already buzzing with discussions about hotels that continued to sock visitors with surprise fees, including "electricity surcharge fees, safe fees, telephone fees, maid gratuity fees and convenience bar fees."

In South Florida, where I live, it's hard to find a hotel that doesn't charge a "resort fee" of up to $10 a day that covers parking, pool usage, beach chairs and gratuities. The hotels may ease up on these levies, may back down when a customer complains, but they're unlikely to drop them, just as they're unlikely to disclose them fully when you arrive.

There is nothing inherently wrong with these charges. It's a hotel's right to impose these fees and it's a guest's responsibility to pay them. What is wrong is a hotel's half-hearted, and often nonexistent, disclosure of these add-ons. We can't trust the hotel industry to regulate itself on this issue, nor are state or local laws sufficient to address the problem.

We need a better solution. Because despite reports to the contrary, these surcharges are here to stay.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator based in Key Largo, Fla. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion.