One of the most annoying trends in the hotel industry is resort fees, destination rates, facility rates whatever you want to call them. Essentially, these are additional charges that hotels add to the room rate.
A pending lawsuit against Marriott in the District Court of Columbia may prompt the company and its franchisees to pay millions of dollars in compensatory fees for resort fees charged with discounting guests. But experts say it is unlikely to eliminate the practice of the hotel industry.
Marriott owns 7,000 approximately properties worldwide, including fewer than 30 hotels. Which means that the brand must go slowly when approaching hundreds of franchisees on how to deal with language and resort fee practices after resolving outstanding litigation.
This is especially true if Marriott is forced to pay. While the company charges royalty fees for management fees and incentives, realtors retain most of the resort’s tariff benefits.
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For those who wonder why hotel charge resort fee, here is the answer, Hotels charge these rates for a variety of reasons:
The District Attorney of the District of Columbia, Karl Racine, today filed a lawsuit against Marriott for hiding the real price of hotel rooms from consumers and charging fees hidden at the resort to increase profits.
He argues that this practice has harmed consumers, and wants to force Marriott to announce the actual price of its hotels in advance, and also to provide monetary relief to DC consumers who have been harmed by this policy.
“Marriott reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in profits by tricking consumers into the actual price of their hotel rooms, and the deceptive pricing practices of advertising and bait change are illegal.” With this demand, we seek monetary relief for dozens of thousands of District consumers who paid hidden resort fees and forced Marriott to be fully transparent about their prices so that consumers can make informed decisions when booking hotel rooms. ”
The lawsuit states that many people book hotels through comparison sites, to attract customers, some hotels advertise daily rates lower than the true total price that consumers will have to pay for a room. Then, when consumers booked, the hotel combines mandatory rates.
How to hide the actual price of hotel rooms: Marriott hides the actual total price of hotel rooms by announcing a rate and then charging the “resort fees”, the “service fees” or the mandatory “destination fees”, in addition to the advertised price. At least 189 Marriott properties around the world charge these hidden fees, which range from $ 9 to $ 95 per room per day, and consumers only learn about these rates after they start booking a room.
Do not reveal all reservation fees: the prices of the rooms that Marriott includes on its website and the third-party hotel booking sites do not include mandatory resort fees and these rates are not disclosed in advance. Consumers do not know the total price of their hotel rooms until they initiate the reservation process, and the revelations of the resort’s rates are often hidden in dark areas, worded confusingly, or presented in smaller print than the rates published This leads consumers to believe that they will pay less for a hotel room than the true total cost. It also makes it extremely difficult for consumers to gather all the information they need to compare prices and make informed decisions.
Misleadingly state that the government imposes resort fees: in many cases, Marriott includes resort fees near the end of a hotel reservation transaction under the heading “Taxes and fees.” By combining the amounts with consumers who were asked to pay resort fees with their tax payments under a generic heading, Marriott leads consumers to believe that resort fees were government-imposed charges, rather than additional daily charges, which were paid to Marriott.
Deceptive consumers about what the resort fees pay: In some cases, Marriott makes confusing or contradictory representations about why they charge resort fees and what services or services consumers are paying.
Since 2017, Saba Ghani has been serving as the talented and dedicated chief content writer for Pakistan Tour and Travel & EMHI Solutions. With her exceptional writing skills and in-depth knowledge of the travel industry, she has been instrumental in crafting engaging and informative content that captivates the audience. You can catch her at [email protected] or Twitter
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