Surprise! There’s a fee for that

Here’s a new — and outlandish — item for Catharine Hamm’s On the Spot column about “surprise” hotel fees [“Will Warning Work?” Feb. 10]. I have been assisting by email a friend in China who is booking hotels and airfares for herself and several clients for a multi-city trip here. Her panicked emails are arriving with increasing frequency as she tries to book an upscale but practical trip for her clients.

The latest email wailed about a hotel’s notice of $35 a day for a “refrigerator fee.” What nonsense is this? I could only advise that they should alert management at check-in that the guests will not need a refrigerator, so they should not be charged for it.

I am embarrassed for our country by this type of gouging, both of our foreign tourists and local travelers.

Given the fees that airlines have tacked on at every opportunity, it does not surprise me that hotels are trying to do the same. I think the Federal Trade Commission needs to beef up its oversight. What’s happened to fair and transparent treatment of customers? Does anyone care about repeat business and customer loyalty anymore? How will these “drip pricing” practices lead to long-term business? MARY E. BARTON MAYES

Long Beach

::

I had to cancel a trip in business class on British Airways from San Diego to Hamburg, Germany.

For its electronic trouble to refund, BA charged $40. I was informed that my seat reservation fee of $98 was nonrefundable.

Because some other passenger is surely going to sit in my seat on April 1, I feel betrayed.

BA has been my favorite airline, and I am furious how little customer loyalty means to them. JENS NOWAK Palm Springs