The worst hidden hotel fees (and how to avoid them)

Hotels like to call us guests, but have you ever had a stay where a more appropriate term would be ‘Mr/Ms Revenue Centre’? Unfortunately, this feeling is an all too common occurrence for many travellers.

After all, you’ve paid a pretty penny for your room, so to seemingly be hit with a raft of additional charges at every turn – from the downright sneaky to outright insulting – simply feels like a needless cash grab.

These sometimes go way beyond exorbitant-but-expected minibar costs (or that $10 packet of roasted nuts eyeing you from the snack tray) to frivolous charges like reservation fees for a seat at the bar or a charge for using the spa in your room.

During my extensive global travels I’ve encountered plenty of rip-offs and rorts perpetrated by hotels. Here are five from my list.

Resort and destination fees

Mostly seen at US hotels, even when they’re not anything like what you’d picture as a resort, resort fees – also known as ‘destination fees’ – are a compulsory daily charge allegedly covering facilities like the pool and gym. These can sometimes be upwards of US$40.

It makes no difference if you don’t actually use those amenities, you’ll be charged the fee anyway. This surcharge can also be said to cover the provision of WiFi, housekeeping, the concierge or anything else which:

a) is a standard inclusion for a hotel, and

b) which the property believes it can get away with.

Resort fees and their evil ilk were created by hotel groups both to reduce the commission they had to pay to third-party booking sites, and to show an appealingly low room rate on hotel comparison sites and searches, because these extras fees only appear when you go through with the booking.

Depending on the hotel and their stipulated fees, you may be better off abandoning the third-party cart and booking directly with the hotel, or finding an alternative property. 

Hidden service charges

Most US hotels automatically add a 20% gratuity to room service orders, on top of a ‘service charge’ for delivering the meal – and they still leave an empty space on the docket where you’re expected to tip the waiter.

But being hit by a hidden service charge can go far beyond room service.

Checking out from a boutique five-star hotel in London, I noticed the bill included a daily 5% ‘discretionary service charge’ based on the room rate.

That worked out to around £10 per day for no particular service I could think off, nor any the front desk staff could name – and certainly nothing that wasn’t par for the course at such an upmarket hotel.

To their credit, the hotel removed the charge once I queried it – but it left me wondering how many tens of thousands of ‘free money’ they raked in every month from unassuming, unaware guests.

Internet from the dial-up era 

Failing to keep pace with the boom in mobile computing and multi-device ownership, some hotels offer free WiFi that’s is so slow you are effectively forced to pay for the upgrade to a useful service – especially if that already snail-like speed is being shared among two people.

What’s worse is when that upgraded WiFi is only marginally faster than the free version, making you question why you didn’t simply tether from your mobile phone instead. 

Thankfully, more hotels are catching up to the basic need for true high-speed WiFi – sometimes provided free for all, and other times only for loyalty members. The latter is a good case for joining the hotel’s loyalty program when free WiFi is among the perks.

Paying to use the minibar fridge

That’s right: I’m not talking about paying for a drink from the minibar, but for the temerity to use that convenient fridge to store your own drinks or snacks, or even medicine.

During one stay at a highly-rated Marriott group hotel in Seattle, guests – I’m sorry, ‘revenue centres’ – were expected to pay US$7 to store personal items in the fridge.

Naturally this is to discourage guests from stocking up at any nearby 7-11 or Walgreens, although the hotel was willing to provide me with a second ‘personal use’ fridge free of charge (not including a $5 tip to the bloke who delivers it to your room).

Of course, there’s nothing to stop you simply emptying the fridge of non-perishable items like soft drinks and using the fridge to your heart’s content, before restocking it prior to departure. 

Fees to receive mail and parcel deliveries

This trick is favoured by several US hotels, especially but not exclusively in Las Vegas.

In the case of some massive conventional centre hotels, the property will outsource its mail handling to a Fedex business centre which then charges guests anywhere from $5 to receive a standard-sized envelope and $20 for a small shoebox-sized parcel, for example.

That’s not a delivery fee to your room – it’s just a cost for the hotel accepting your mail.

I’ve found that when checking out of the hotel, tactfully protesting the idiocy of $5 to receive a featherweight envelope can see all ‘handling’ costs wiped from the bill.

Other city hotels can charge anywhere from $10 upwards to receive an order from the likes of Amazon, and can be far less amenable to foregoing the fee – although if this cost isn’t flagged on the hotel’s website (check the section on business services or business centre, or the broader guest services page) it’s not a hard case to make that the fees are not publicised and should be dropped.

However, you can sidestep all that by having your Amazon delivery sent straight to an Amazon locker or other pickup point – check for their locations before placing your order.

What are some of the hotel rip-offs and rorts you’ve encountered during your travels?