Study lists 10 hard-to-track travel fees

Ancillary charges for extra services can really add up

Airline, hotel and car-rental fees are becoming increasingly problematic for companies and business travelers because they’re often difficult to track, a new study released today has found.

The fees that are the most vexing to companies and travel managers are those that are least predictable, can’t be paid in advance, and are difficult to account for individually, according to research by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), which represents 17,000 travel and meetings managers.

The researchers studied the so-called ancillary fees for extra services charged by nine major airlines, four rental car agencies and 10 hotel chains. They then rated them according to how common, transparent and easy to track through individual expense reports and other sources they are. Finally, they came up with a list of the top 10 problematic fees.

Four of the fees were charged by airlines. Baggage fees didn’t make the cut because airlines typically advertise them. But travelers don’t always expect extra charges for soft drinks, headset use, movies and videos, and food. Car-rental fees for toll passage, late returns, drop-off of a one-way rental, and fuel also made the top 10. Fees for Internet use and parking were the most troublesome hotel charges.

Companies are struggling to accurately track and account for many business expenses, which is wreaking havoc on their budgets, researchers found. In some cases, the fees are collected by third-party vendors, as with hotel parking, which makes accounting for them even more complex. Travel managers find themselves spending greater amounts of time trying to figure out from an expense report how much the employee paid in fees.

“Our research shows that ancillary fees have a significant impact on travel budgets and policies,” says Joe Bates, senior director of research for the GBTA. “With better insight into how these fees work, travel managers can make more informed choices.”

Bates says hotels and rental cars have charged a wide variety of fees for a long time, but only in recent years have airlines realized how lucrative doing so can be. Baggage fees, for instance, generated $3.36 billion in revenue for airlines in 2011, according to the Transportation Department. Travel managers say all fees account for more than 8% of what their companies spend on trips.

Earlier this year, the Transportation Department began requiring airlines to include all government taxes and other fees in advertised fares. But business travelers say more should be done to crack down on hidden fees, particularly those charged by rental car agencies and hotels.

Alan Intrator, president of a credit card processing company in Woodmere, N.Y., says he recently called room service at a W Hotel in New York to request six glasses and was told he’d have to pay $1.50 for each one.

“I told them they were out of their minds,” he says, and dropped the request.