Travellers in the US are getting more and more fed up with chain hotels charging fees that are compulsory but not shown in their online room rates at the time of booking. The most common are “resort,” “housekeeping,” and (our old favourite) “Internet access” fees. Now independent consumer advocate Ed Perkins has taken up the cudgels in the Chicago Tribune:

“Our objection to these fees is simple: If they’re mandatory, they should be included in the hotel’s base room rate. […] You know how it works: A hotel that wants to collect, say, $200 a night for a room, instead posts a phony rate of $170 a night, then adds one or more mandatory fees to make up the $30 difference. The problem, of course, is that it’s the phony $170 price the hotel posts online and submits to the online pricing sites; you don’t find out about the true $200 price until later — maybe not until you’ve made a non-refundable purchase.”

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