Hotel Manager Reveals How To Get That Pesky Resort Fee Taken Off Your Bill
Resort fees are infuriating. The price of a hotel room isn’t the price. You book a room advertised at one price, but the hotel charges you that plus an additional fee. And since that ‘resort’ or ‘destination fee’ is mandatory, the room rate is deceptive because it doesn’t tell you how much it costs to stay at the hotel.
- Most resort fees don’t even have ‘real’ benefits, they have lists of things you could theoretically get – discounts on services, classes you don’t want that take place at times you won’t be at the hotel. Then there are prices attached to those things. That makes it sound like the resort fee is a ‘deal’. But if it were a deal, it could be voluntary and you’d pay!
- They’re really fraud, a way to disguise the true price of a room, and drip pricing that lets them raise the cost after you’ve clicked through to a property. It doesn’t just disguise the cost from the consumer, but also anyone receiving a commission as well.
The President declared resort fees deceptive and called for a ban but didn’t actually doing anything about them. However you can do something about them.
- You should prefer hotels that don’t charge resort fees
- You should prefer chains that don’t charge them… as often. Hyatt and Hilton don’t add resort fees onto the cost of award stays like Marriott does. Hyatt Globalist members don’t get hit with resort fees on paid stays, either.
But one hotel manager for an IHG property in Toronto says that all you have to do to avoid resort fees is make it clear you don’t want to pay them. Here’s how.
I am a manager at an upscale IHG property in GTA (Greater Toronto Area) and my property recently fixed an “Amenity Fee” for the hotel
Since then we have received a barrage of negative reviews on the e questionnaire, Google reviews, [Tripadvisor] the works. Seeing our guests scores go down, upper management took the decision to allow the removal of amenity fees for any guests that complain. The ones who complain online, have their fees removed post check out.
He says “ensure you put 1 star reviews on any and all platforms you can. And mention amenity fees as the primary reason.” And don’t feel bad if you actually had a great stay but still do this, “You can always put a one liner saying how you had a good stay and maybe put names of the staff that helped you. But still put the lowest possible review online.”
I think it goes without saying that you should not be aggressive or a jerk with hotel front desk staff over the fees. You can complain about the fees when they ask you how your stay was, “I’m being charged $30 a night for a Noon yoga class but I’m always off-property working at that time.” Some properties might waive the charge, some won’t, how much flexibility the front desk has isn’t up to them and if they can do it they’ll be more likely to if you’re nice anyway.
And different ownership groups will connect the dots between their poor reviews and customer satisfaction scores and taking action on the resort fees differently. Some may decide that you’ve already left the review, what does returning some of your money help?
Still, this manager suggests that writing a negative review and noting the problem was the resort fee is often a way to get the hotel to give your money back that they took unfairly in the first place.