Random rants welcome

@chai2,

chai2 wrote:

I'm not familiar with that, but they sound infuriating.

What exactly do they try to tell you these fees are for?

Usually at resort style hotels - they are under the assumption that you are going to use the pool, spa, gym etc. so they automatically charge you extra for it.

here is wiki's definition -

A resort fee is a daily mandatory additional charge that the hotel separates out from the advertised price. Consumer advocates equate this to paying a second room rate. The average resort fee costs $24.93 per day. A resort fee is collected separately from the advertised room rate.

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@chai2,

Quote:

I'm not familiar with that, but they sound infuriating.
What exactly do they try to tell you these fees are for?

http://www.travelpulse.com/news/hotels-and-resorts/resort-fees-who-benefits-who-suffers.html

Resort Fees: Who Benefits, Who Suffers?

Quote:

Mandatory resort fees have emerged as a hot topic in the travel world of late, with the generally hidden daily fees impacting not only customers, but travel agents as well.

Last month, non-profit consumers group Travelers United reported U.S. consumers paid an estimated $2.04 billion in mandatory resort fees over the course of 2015, a 35 percent rise from 2014.

"It's not optional," travel expert Tim Winship told Reuters. "It's not a surcharge for over and above a normal hotel stay. It's a gouge — that's what it comes down to."

In addition to presenting an inaccurate room rate at times, it's not always clear what the fees are paying for. In fact, most of the time the fees claim to go toward hotel amenities that are already being offered, such as Wi-Fi and fitness centers.

While the American Hotel and Lodging Association defends the practice and denies that any of the fees are hidden, Travelers United co-founder Charlie Leocha described leaving a mandatory fee out of a room rate as "misleading and deceptive."

With resort fees becoming increasingly more common and expensive, according to Leocha's group, Federal Trade Commission chairwoman Edith Ramirez recently called on Congress to draft new legislation designed to protect consumers.

However it's not just the consumer that's impacted by resort fees.

Since a majority of the fees collected go directly to the hotel owner's bottom line, they don't have to pay out commission to a travel agent. And in turn, often times the travel agent or the hotel management company rather than the hotel owner is forced to answer to the displeased customer.

Therefore, hotel owners have little to no incentive to do away with resort fees. On the flip side, that means the rest of the industry isn't hesistant to move away from resort fees.

Looking ahead, the FTC possesses the power to create change and could potentially send mandatory resort fees into extinction by deeming them unfair or deceptive. At that point, hotel companies could have the final say over owners and eliminate the unwelcome charges for good.

Until then, though, it appears that hotel owners will continue to cash in at the expense of travelers and their agents.

2 Replies

@Real Music,

Another RANT. THIS ONE's ABOUT ATMs. Theyve been putting these decision loops on the screen at convenience stores that have "no fee" ATMs . The screen will show three FAST CASH options besides the other options. They list a 100 300 or 600 FAST CASH.
Well, the last weekend I needed some boat gas nd the....ahem.... deockmaster only takes cash. So I took 600 by FAST CSH and confisent that everything was cool. TODAY, we got our monthly credit card Bill and saw that very time someone chose the FAST CASH option, the ATM reads that as a CSH DVNCE, not debit nor a credit operation.

SOOO, for the 600 buck trnsaction there was a ervice fee of 25 bucks and a 10% fee. Thi transferred back to two other fat cash ransactions this month.
PISS ME OFF. The machine sucks you i with a "convenience" option then BLQM they slqm a goddm fee of almost 85 BUCKS. I coulda used my credit card nd gone through keying in and waiting for the transaction slip, or used the debit and draw it from savings or checking.
Mrs F called the bank (its only 1 bank doing it right now but itll be all over at an ATM near you)

1 Reply

I'm not a vegetarian, nor, hopefully, will I ever have to be.

I love veal and lamb.
I like giving my cat the chance to go outside and ... be a cat.

But surely one valid point in favor of vegetarianism is that growing food and feeding it to animals and then eating the animals is less efficient than just eating food you've grown. That seems obvious from the second law of thermodynamics. Livestock are not perpetual motion machines.

Well, this guy says in the paper today that the efficiency of vegetarianism is "propaganda and crap." It seems like common sense to me.

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@farmerman,

Holy crap. $85 would have totally set me off. I get annoyed when Wally needs $30 and instead of driving 3 more blocks to the banks ATM he stops at Abbas's down the street and end up paying something like $5 in fees.

1 Reply

@chai2,

We have several convenience chains that offer FREE TM for taking ones money from their checking and we are kinda used to that.(The places are HIGH's, WAWA, and ROYAL FARMS.) Theyve added these "Fast Cash" options and (after the fact) qe were given a head's up by our banks NOT TO use this option cause its a silent fee grab by the bank that hosts the ATM (we deal with diferent banks than those that usually host these store lobby ATMs)

Just a warning that I think its a growing little annoyance the, existence of which, ill be religiously avoided hereafter.
Ive sent a letter to the WAWA where this happened in the Delaware Shore town Of Lewes (pronounced LOO'-iss, not Loo-EEZ' as most New Jerseyites say).

Thanks for the rant space.

PS, Mrs F has begun a campaign toe force the host bank to admit that this is a scam and she wants her goddam money back.
Iwas wrong about the 85$ (total). That was an announcement on the bank post that stated that
1 there was a withdrawal fee of 15$ because that transaction was treated as a "CASH ADVANCE" by the bank .Hence the transaction did not even touch my checking account or savings.

2 If we would be "running a balance", this transaction would be billed out at a "host bank " interest rate that was close to 25%, which , for the 600$ woulda actually been over 100 bucks. WTF!!!
3 My advice (following my disjointed rant) is to NEVER use the FAST CASH option. The pricks.

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@Real Music,

Yes when I first started seeing these fees, I will purposedly not book at hotels that charged the fee. The problem being though as it states here many people do not always even know they are going to be charged this fee until they see their bill at the hotel. It is in the fine print, but how many people miss that small line that says something along the line of an added resort fee of xyz will be added to your hotel bill daily?

As more people notice this and more hotels add this fee, you might start getting similar reactions. To be honest though in the past 3 or more years I haven't been in a position to stay at a hotel with a resort fee just because I have little time or money for that sort of vacation.

But I digress from the ranting and I don't want to be scolded so I will move on

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