Progress in exposing hidden lodging fees

In its economic wake, the coronavirus pandemic has scrambled travel fees.

On one hand, it pushed airlines to drop change fees on most fares as virtually everyone who had a ticket in early 2020 looked to cancel.

On the other, extra cleaning pushed fees up in vacation rental homes.

But the pandemic certainly isn’t the only source of added fees, especially when it comes to accommodations.

Travelers have long complained about the shock of finding a deal on a hotel for $100 only to learn it doesn’t include the $45-a-night resort fee, a charge undergoing new legal scrutiny.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, resort fees — supplements charged for access to things like swimming pools and Wi-Fi — have been around since 1997.

The hotel industry defends them as a way to keep costs down for the individual by spreading them to everyone (think of one person paying the internet tab, versus sharing it with all guests).

Resort fees are not common. According to the American Hotel and Lodging Association, only 7 percent of hotels in the United States charge them.

Still, they irk travelers, and earlier this year, the nonprofit advocacy group Travelers United sued MGM Resorts International for deceptively advertising rates that don’t include the mandatory fees, which can run $35 to $45 a day at its Las Vegas, Nev., properties.

“Hotels have now made fees mandatory. If they’re mandatory, they should be included in the rate,” said Charles Leocha, the president and co-founder of Travelers United.

He added that during the pandemic, many hotels closed the sort of amenities, like pools, that resort fees were said to cover, yet continued to collect the fees.

“In reality, there’s no connection,” he said.

In a win for consumers, Marriott International recently settled a lawsuit brought by Pennsylvania’s attorney general over its resort fees, agreeing to disclose fees along with rates.

The hotel company responded that it will be “working over the next several months to update the room rate display in accordance with that agreement,” according to a statement.

Rather than bundling them into room rates, many hotels have made resort fees more explicit.

The Phoenician, a Marriott Luxury Collection resort in Scottsdale, Ariz., for example, has a resort fee page on its website, indicating what guests get for their daily fee of $45 per room fee: Wi-Fi (worth, it states, $14.95), morning yoga ($30), one hour of tennis ($75), one hour of pickleball ($75), bikes ($35) and a craft beer tasting.

Hotels have yet to recover from the pandemic — according to the AHLA, room revenue is expected to be down nearly $44 billion in 2021 compared to 2019 — potentially making fees more attractive.