#federallevel

Palm trees stand in front of the Marina Del Rey Marriott hotel in Marina Del Rey, California. Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images Help is on the way for travelers frustrated with great hotel rates that disappear once mandatory resort, amenity or "urban convenience" fees are added. The fees are said to cover everything from internet and fitness room access to bottles of water and can average from a few dollars to more than $30 a day, according to ResortFeeChecker.com, with some properties in Las Vegas charging daily resort fees of $45. KillResortFees.com cites one Miami resort that tacks on a hefty $160.50 nightly fee to its rates. "It's called drip pricing," says Robert Cole, a senior research analyst at travel research company Phocuswright. Cole calls the practice "consumer-hostile" because consumers often click on an appealing advertised nightly room price only to find that a few clicks later the real nightly room rate is much higher. Adding resort fees separately also allows hotels to cut commissions to travel advisors and online sites, "since the hotels only pay commissions on the lower room rate, not the additional fees," said Albert Herrera, senior vice president of global product partnerships at the Virtuoso travel network. States are pushing to make the room rates and fees more transparent. Attorneys general in Nebraska and the District of Columbia last year filed suit against Hilton and Marriott, respectively, charging the hotels with advertising and pricing rooms in a deceptive and misleading manner in violation of state laws. The lawsuits followed an investigation by 50 attorneys general into hotel resort fees. Hilton, named in the Nebraska suit, said in a statement that "resort fees are charged at less than two percent of our properties globally, enable additional value for our guests, and are always fully disclosed when booking through Hilton channels." In December, a judge denied Marriott's motion to dismiss the D.C. case, which has now moved on to the discovery phase. Marriott said in a statement that it plans to continue a "vigorous fight" against the case, adding that "Marriott's policy is to disclose resort fees during the booking process so that it is reflected in the total price shown before the guest completes the reservation process." In October, 2019, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts did not admit liability, but agreed to pay a $6 million settlement to resolve claims in a class action lawsuit regarding deceptive resort fees. The company said in a statement that it believes it has always complied with laws and called the settlement "amicable in principle." There's also an effort to ban the fees at the federal level. In September, 2019, a bi-partisan bill seeking to end hidden resort fees was introduced in Congress. Consumer advocacy groups such as Travelers United and the website Kill Resort Fees are among the organizations pushing to move the bill forward. Meanwhile, booking companies are trying to get hotels to be more upfront about their fees as well. At the beginning of 2020, Booking.com began charging properties commissions on both the advertised room rate and any extra resort and mandatory fees charged to customers. The fee was added "to provide our customers transparent information about the total price they will need to pay at a property," said company spokeswoman Angela Cavis, "and to create a level playing field for all of our accommodation partners." In a statement, the Expedia Group says it has some concerns about whether amenity fees are in the best interest of travelers. Company spokeswoman Alexis Tiacoh said Expedia is now evaluating how high hotels with mandatory fees appear in the online rankings. "Our goal is to ensure that among otherwise equal hotels, those not charging mandatory fees have higher visibility to travelers on our sites, thereby empowering travelers to compare their travel options easily and intuitively," said Tiacoh.

Advice for travelers

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“Ricardo Levins Morales describes himself as a “healer and trickster organizer disguised as an artist.” He was born into the anti-colonial movement in his native Puerto Rico and was drawn into activism in Chicago when his family moved there in 1967. He left high school early and worked in various industries, and over time began to use his art as part of his activism. This activism has included support work for the Black Panthers and Young Lords to participating in or acting in solidarity with farmers, environmental, labor, racial justice and peace movements. Increasingly he has come to see his art and organizing practices as means to address individual, collective and historical trauma.”

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