Disclosing Resort Fees: Transparency Is Essential to Avoid Liability
In their Hospitality Law column, Todd E. Soloway and Bryan T. Mohler explore the current legal landscape in New York and nationwide for hoteliers disclosing resort fees, and consider best practices for hotels doing business in New York to protect against potential liability under the state's statutory scheme.
January 09, 2018 at 01:46 PM
9 minute read
You are checking out of your hotel when you spot a new charge – “resort fee” – for $25 per night on the itemized invoice. You loosely remember being told something about that “fee,” and with a shrug think, “I guess I have no choice but to pay it.”
The charging of resort fees—also known as facility fees, destination fees, amenity fees or urban fees—at hotels is becoming increasingly common. In exchange for paying this generally mandatory fee, assessed by hotels in addition to the cost of the hotel room, hotel guests are supposedly provided access to a variety of goods and services such as gym facilities and swimming pools, luggage storage, “complimentary” happy hours, parking and wireless Internet.
While costs for many of these amenities were traditionally built into the cost of a hotel room, many hotels are now separately charging resort fees as they search for new ways to increase revenue. In charging these fees, hotel owners, operators and brands face the dilemma of how and when to present the existence of a resort fee to travelers booking hotel stays, and the manner in which hotels choose to disclose such fees varies widely. In some cases, resort fees are incorporated into the total per night price quoted to a prospective guest, enabling the consumer to easily compare prices across hotels. In other instances, resort fees are poorly disclosed or not revealed at all during the booking process, appearing only in the fine print of a reservation or on the final booking confirmation screen.
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