Hotel resort fees make history in the State of the Union Address this year
President Biden harked that he was going to ban hotel resort fees. You know, “those fees can cost up to $90 a night at hotels that aren’t even resorts,” to thunderous applause at the State of the Union. He certainly struck a chord with Americans sick of being nickel-and-dimed.
The hotel resort fees started long ago at actual resorts to extract more revenue from unsuspecting consumers. It has devolved into a way for any hotel to lie about its advertised room rate.
Hundreds of hotels in Manhattan now charge junk resort fees, but no one would consider any hotel in the world’s best concrete jungle a resort. Though it’s been clear for a while that there is no correlation between resorts and resort fees, you may be surprised just how far hotels are taking the resort fee scam.
Nickel-and-diming a guest at a luxury hotel with an additional $90 resort fee is deceptive pricing that should be illegal. Yet, did you know some budget hotels also charge deceptive junk fees?
Budget motels have joined the fray by charging hotel resort fees or junk fees.
These low-cost motels that often rent by the week or the month as an option for people to have a roof over their heads and live somewhere other than their car have been charging a deceptive “safe fee” for over ten years.
Budget hotels are charging (I hope you are sitting) “safe fees” that have nothing to do with safety but are for the hidden safe in the room.
Budget motels often offer an advertised room rate of $50 a night, $300 a week, and $850 a month. Not advertised at that price is the “safe fee” many hotels deceptively charge guests when they check out.
The hotel’s front desk will say, “Oh, there is an extra $3 a day fee for using the safe in your room.” When guests complain that they didn’t know about the fee or that they never used the safe, the hotel front desk will say that does not matter.
The people staying in these situations are not the type that has an extra $90 to pay the month’s “safe fee” when checking out of their motel/home of the last month.
This is truly predatory behavior by some of America’s cheapest motels. They know their customers are in extreme budget situations and yet they charge a “safe fee” to take advantage of them. A “safe fee” is a motel version of a hotel resort fee (or a mandatory hotel fee).
It is enough to make your blood boil. Our’s is!
As enraging as this situation is, there has been little coverage. Here are a few examples from around the country: a $1-a-day safe fee hidden as a tax, an undisclosed $1.50 safe fee at a Sleep Inn in West Virginia, and a $2 safe fee at the SpringHill Suites in Michigan.
Many budget hotels do not list their junk fee online. Occasionally a consumer may run into one that discloses the fee(s) online. The Econo Lodge and Suites in Clarksville, Tennessee lists in their fine print at the bottom of their site that there is a “hotel service fee” of $2.00 a day and a $1 daily “safe fee” plus tax that will be added per night. So that’s three dollars added to the advertised price every single day.
“Safe fees” are deceptive. They are hotel fees that are in reality junk fees.
Sure, charging people at a luxury resort a $75 additional resort fee per day is deceptive.
It’s beyond deceptive — maybe repulsive would be a better term – to charge people hidden fees when they are trying to find a place to sleep that is not their car.
We need to end hotel resort fees and all deceptively hidden hotel junk fees (like safe fees). American consumers want a free market where both ends of the hotel spectrum are forced to advertise their actual price. All resort fees should end but predatory hotel safe fees particularly illustrate the need for swift action.
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Lauren joined Travelers United in 2015. Founded Kill Resort Fees, the only site devoted to ending hidden hotel resort fees. Armed with an arsenal of frequent flyer miles and some extreme budgeting skills, Lauren traveled around the world through 37 countries. Accomplishments include eating at the world’s largest restaurant in Syria, bungee jumping off the Victoria Falls Bridge on the Zambia/Zimbabwe border, running into Anthony Bourdain at a Mexican restaurant in Cambodia and cage diving with Great White Sharks in South Africa.
