Hotel Hidden Fees: What I'd Pay Extra For (Or Not)

There's a price for everything these days. According to the Wall Street Journal, Starwood Hotels has a new program at certain Sheraton and Westin hotels that gives you a $5 credit at the restaurant or 500 frequent-guest points if you skip housekeeping for the day. This is just another way for them to save dough, of course — it costs around $22 a day to clean a luxury hotel room, according to the article — but they can promote it as being good for the environment, like asking you to reuse your towels. How thoughtful!

When you boil it down, this is just another way of charging extra for stuff you used to get for free. That room will cost you $200 if you want it cleaned but only $195 if you tell the maid to beat it and take the food credit instead. Are hotels becoming more like airlines, which now charge for everything from snacks to pillows to checking a bag? (Unbelievably, European discount carrier Ryanair is apparently proceeding with plans to charge passengers to go to the bathroom.) Many hotels already charge a hefty — and mandatory — daily "resort fee" that covers everything from local phone calls to the fitness center to the pool, whether you use them or not. And cruise lines will ding you for little extras like soft drinks and reservations at certain restaurants. It seems as if every travel experience is becoming a series of nickel-and-dime moments

When I'm staying a hotel, I enjoy having someone else make the bed and pick the socks off the floor, so I'd never forgo housekeeping, whether for the environment's sake or my wallet's. But there are plenty of other hotel "amenities" that I would gladly go without, for a slight adjustment to the final bill. Here are a few:

• Not constantly saying "Hello, Mr. Frank. My pleasure!" every time our eyes meet: $10 credit
• Not having the front desk clerk show me to the room, point out the light switches, and explain how to open the curtains: $10 credit
• Not knocking on the door for turn-down service between 6:30 and 8:00 pm, when I'm obviously getting ready for dinner: $10 credit
• Not programming the TV with impossible-to-navigate menus, stupid hotel videos, and bad porn: $5 credit
• Not passive-aggressively slipping a copy of the bill under the door the morning of my departure: $2 credit

And a few niceties I'd gladly pay extra for:

• Enough free AC outlets so I don't have to crawl around the floor, rearrange the furniture, and unplug the lamps just to charge my iPod: $5 a day
• A safe that actually accommodates something valuable, like a laptop: $1 a day
• A shampoo bottle containing enough product to wash more than one strand of hair: $2 apiece
• Removing all those nearly-empty bottles of water instead of letting them sit around the room for days — just in case I want to finish them: $5

Any particular hotel features you could do without? Or are willing to cough up more for?

Comments

[sgwriter20]

I completely agree with all your list items above. Another very tiny, but still ubiquitous and totally unnecessary "extra" I always find in hotels: shower caps. Does anyone in the world, besides my mom, actually use these anymore? I thought they went out along with the weekly rinse-and-set at the beauty parlor!

[Hannah M. Wallace]

I would gladly pay extra for Wi-Fi (and do) though I'd rather it were always included (like running water) in the rate. It's one of my biggest pet peeves to be nickled and dimed by hotels, but esp. for high speed internet acceess. (and it's always the high-end hotels that do it, whereas funky cheap places include it. What's up with that?)