There’s bad news and slightly better news. Marriott is not getting rid of resort fees, but they will now fully disclose the despised fees in the upfront cost of hotel rooms. Resort fees are a pain for most passengers – adding as much as US $45 to the cost of a hotel room. While hotel brands claim that the fees provide guests with useful amenities such as Wi-Fi, parking, pool and gym access and other services that a guest just might assume are already included in the price of their stay. Of course, if the guest uses just a few, or even none of those ‘amenities’ well … tough.
Hotels earn millions annually from resort fees so they aren’t about to let them go easily – nor do they apparently care to disclose them upfront.
Marriott’s change of heart came following a settlement with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office, investigating the hotel chain for what, according to a statement from the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office, is “drip pricing” where “fees are gradually disclosed to consumers as they go through the booking process.”
The PA DA Josh Shapiro, considered this to be, “a violation of Pennsylvania’s Consumer Protection Law.”
“Hotels shouldn’t be able to slap hidden fees on top of your bill at the last minute, and thanks to this settlement we’re putting the hotel industry on notice to put an end to this deceptive practice,” Shapiro said in the statement.
In its own statement Marriott, said it will work “over the next several months to update the room rate display” in accordance with the agreement made in Pennsylvania and also claimed it has been transparent about such fees.
“Marriott International has long been committed to making sure that any resort/destination fees charged by hotels in the U.S. are separately and clearly stated. For many years, consistent with guidance from the Federal Trade Commission, we have clearly disclosed such fees on our channels throughout the booking process, with disclosures on multiple pages before the customer elects to book a room. Further, we have controls in place to ensure that hotels in our system that include a resort/destination fee adhere to strict criteria, which includes a requirement to provide amenities that have a value exceeding the amount of the resort/destination fee.”
Marriott actually has relatively minor resort fees compared to some other hotel companies. A NerdWallet analysis of seven major hotel companies found that, “Marriott hotels have the lowest resort fees as a percent of the total room cost (Hyatt had the highest relative resort fees). In that analysis, Marriott’s resort fees averaged out to be 2.71% of the total room cost, while Hyatt’s resort fees amounted to 6.1% of the cost.”
But while Marriott, which has more than 7,000 properties worldwide, is the only major hotel brand saying it is making the change, Shapiro said he believes other hotels will follow its lead. He commended Marriott, “for being the first hotel to formally commit to the upfront disclosure of resort fees,” calling it “a practice that should be considered the industry standard going forward.”
Marriott said it would implement these changes within the next nine months, according to Shapiro.
His office would not comment on whether other lawsuits or investigations were being planned but, “encourage(d) other chains to step up and provide this same transparency for consumers,”
Travellers need to remain vigilant
Currently, only the base room rate is displayed on the main booking page and additional taxes and fees generally don’t appear until the checkout screen. In some hotel brands, travellers are hit with resort fees at the hotel and in fact many may not even notice the charges till their credit card bill arrives.
Once the new policy is implemented by Marriott, the total price of the hotel stay, including room rate and all other mandatory fees, will appear on the first page of Marriott’s booking website.
However, the ruling does necessarily apply to OTA websites. Shapiro said he expects other hotel chains and third-party vendors to follow suit, for now the ruling only pertains to rooms booked directly with Marriott.