Hotel Amenities and Fees

That is ridiculous! If any hotel tried to charge me extra for air conditioning without disclosing it ahead of time, I would be pretty fired up. I also would be extremely annoyed if I was charged for the room's tea, coffee, milk, and sugar, like the man in Glasgow, without there being a disclosure.

I don't care if they charge for something like that (although it would certainly factor into my decision re: staying there), but failure to disclose is a deal breaker for me.

There has been a long problem with resort fees when booking a room in Las Vegas.

On the surface, you might have gotten an excellent price for a very nice room like $35 a night but then there is the fine print of added on resort fees which can more than double the room rate and which is in very fine print. You might not even notice the fine print. The resort fees were non-negotiable . You had to pay them even if you did not use the so called resort amenities.

I believe this has recently changed and this practice is no longer allowed. Resort fees are now included in total price.

I have not tried to book a room in Las Vegas for many years so I do not know how it is now presented.

Very recently, I have heard that Las Vegas tourism has plunged and the resort fees are part of the problem or were part of the problem

And talking about gotcha moments: some years back i was on a cruise excursion. I can not remember where but I believe it was in the Caribbean.

The excursion ended but we guests had to get off the bus one by one. We had to go to the front of the bus and have a chat with the tour guide, give a tip, and then he would open the door and let us off but then close the door for the next passenger who had to have a chat, etc, etc.

Interesting article. Before booking a hotel I always check it out on booking.com. They list the amenities for the place and note what costs extra, like laundry.
I have noticed the uptick in parking fees, especially here in the US where many times they were free but aren’t now.
We were in a Rick recommended, small hotel in Toledo, Spain. One night we noticed the a/c control missing. When my husband inquired about it they told us it wasn’t hot enough to put on the air so we didn’t need it.

I think its another article looking for a bigger problem than that which exists. The only thing the article could find is air-conditioning. So some rooms have it and some dont. Lots of hotels dont have AC or doesnt have it in all of the rooms. Choose one that does and pay for it. Bottled water? Potable water is tap water in most of Europe. Wifi? When was the last time you went to a hotel that didnt have free wifi. There may be a few hotels that dont live up to the standard, but they are a rare exception. These problems dont much exist at least not to the extent that the article implies.

When was the last time you went to a hotel that didnt have free wifi.(?)

I haven't seen free wifi in my last 5'ish domestic trips.

Try booking a room in Chicago and you'll discover exactly how many junk fees a place can add to your bill.

See also: Las Vegas, Seattle, San Francisco, Reno, Carson City, literally any place built above sea level, etc...

-- Mike Beebe

Quite often, these fees are mentioned in the very small print that no one reads. Fortunately, if you read reviews, someone will mention it.

Some of the chains in the US don't give free wifi unless you join their frequent stay program. Since it costs nothing I just do it.

As for air conditioning, there are some countries/provinces/cities in Europe that don't allow hotels to turn the A/C on until a certain date or temperature. (Which is why I travel with a small fan.)

The biggest rip off to me is a stocked mini-refrigerator with no price list. Some might think the items are free but are told they are not at check out. Always ask.

Only once did I see a hotel that charged for in room coffee. There was a big sign. However, it was so long ago I forgot where it was. I have seen hotels that have coffee capsule machines say they only supply the welcome amount of capsules and you have to buy the rest. I usually go to a market and buy them cheaper. However, one hotel in Switzerland had a brand of machine I had never heard of and the only place to find capsules was at the hotel. Fortunately, it was decent coffee. Now I travel with my own coffee that's better.

One hotel in the USA had a sign they charged for parking in their massive parking lot that they shared with a shopping center. I objected and was told that since I had frequent stay status I wouldn't be charged. The parking area was so big Amazon used it to train their drivers.

Frank, so if the marketing said Mini-fridge call front desk for prices (I would assume the maid messed up and forgot to leave the prices), or if the marketing said, only two free servings of coffee; would you have chosen another hotel? Deal breakers for me! If I showed up and discovered that the holiday would be over for me. What a let down. Something I wasn’t counting on being there, but not being of the quality I deserve. I am tired of being victimized by international corporations.

Mike, come to think of it I did get a hotel about 4 years ago with no free Wifi. It was in the mountains of Albania. Come to think of it, its not that they charged for it, it was that there was no wifi. But that was the only hotel out of 4 in Albania that trip.

so if the marketing said Mini-fridge call front desk for prices (I would assume the maid messed up and forgot to leave the prices), or if the marketing said, only two free servings of coffee; would you have chosen another hotel?

No on either one . I usually don't take things from the minibar. In fact, I usually take things out to make room for my stuff. However, one 5 star hotel did electronic inventory. If you took something out to look at it, you were charged. And had to argue upon check out.

As for coffee pods, I have found that in many cases the provided pods are not great and I usually go out and buy my own. As for the hotel where I was stuck buying from them.....It was a very nice hotel and I probably would go back as I now travel with my own coffee.

In fact, I was making a reservation today for a hotel in a certain city and the reviews stated you have to buy extra pods. It wasn't going to be a deal breaker but other negatives were noted so I reserved somewhere else.

The real issue here isn't the extra charge. It's the failure to disclose them in advance of booking the room.

I'd also say that, in the USA, paying extra for air conditioning in warm regions is extortionate. In Europe one should assume nothing as regards A/C. But in either case, if it's advertised, it should be included in the quoted rate. These are, of course, only my opinions.

Charging for AC I encountered the first time in Paris ages ago, July of 1989 in a 2 star hotel. When asked if I wanted breakfast, yes, need car space no, want AC in the room? Admittedly, I was stunned by this question and thought it immoral charging extra for AC...( I didn't know better then.) I told him no on the AC, thinking that paying extra for AC was out of the question.

A couple of years later relating the story of my 1989 Paris stay to a French woman, I saw she took a different view on why AC was extra, to her it was quite a normal practice for the hotel to do that and explained it.

Now, the 2 star hotels I stay in Paris come equipped with a fan. It's up to the guest to turn it on. I don't.

I have twice run into a hotel (either 2-star or low-end 3-star) where some rooms were air-conditioned and some were not. Such places will show up as having air-conditioning if you use the filter on booking.com, and it would be very easy not to notice that the specific room you're booking doesn't have a/c listed as a feature. This is one of the critical things you can learn by reading a bunch of reviews.

One of the two partially air conditioned hotels I stayed in tried to assign me a room without a/c even though I had booked one of the more expensive rooms. I bet they try to pull that on all their guests.

The most outrageous fee I’ve ever encountered was the Hyatt on Maui that tried to charge me $5 per night for the in room safe! I dug my heels in and told the check in clerk they could rip it out of the wall because I categorically was refusing to pay. Eventually a manager waived the fee.