Washington, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine has filed a lawsuit against Marriott International for charging deceptive resort fees. The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) makes a number of allegations that Marriott has violated as violated the District’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act and harmed District consumers by:
- Hiding the true price of hotel rooms
- Failing to clearly disclose all booking fees
- Misrepresenting that resort fees are imposed by the government
- Misleading consumers about what resort fees actually pay for
The full complaint can be found here. I’d also recommend reading the full OAG statement found here. Hotels typically charge resort fees for two main reasons:
- They pay no commission to online travel agencies on these fees as they are collected at the hotel and are not included in the list price (basically considered an auxiliary fee such as dining)
- The list price looks more attractive to consumers (e.g in Vegas sometimes the list price will be $50, but you’ll then need to pay a $35 resort fee)
Online travel agency booking.com has recently tried to start charging commission on resort fees. I think the smart stance is if a fee is mandatory and cannot be avoided, it should be included in the list price. Hotels have long said that they are capable of self regulating and then in the same breathe claim they have to charge resort fees to remain competitive as other chains charge them. This is despite the fact that often the ones saying they “have to” charge these fees will often be the first chain in a new market to charge resort fees (sometimes called a destination fee or some other ridiculous name). I’m glad a government body has finally started to take action on this matter.
