Two Marriott Hotels Introduce New Junk Fee

[josephcsible]

The golden rule of fees: if there are no circumstances under which you won't be charged the fee, then it should instead be incorporated into the base price. This sort of deception should be illegal.

[Ekaros]

Even if the thing is always expected it should be in the price. Like "gratuities". Just insane, that there is expected level and it is not included and paid through by company by default.

[prvit]

This seems to be a government tax, not a fee made up by the hotel.

[jlawer]

I am really glad in Australia companies aren't typically allowed to advertise prices ex taxes / fees. They are allowed to mention the costs as a line item, but can't advertise only part of the cost (i.e. if they advertise its a $89 room, you need to be able to get it for $89)

[fps-hero]

Thankfully we have great consumer laws in Australia. This is referred to as drip pricing. It also makes practices such as mandatory minimum tips illegal, which would make someone from the US’s head spin.

https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/pricing/price-displays

[renewiltord]

SF is full of these. Every restaurant bill will have some SF Healthcare Ordinance or something else on it. Now that would be a useful proposition: all visible prices must have local taxes and fees built-in. We all know everything is going to switch to the tip entry, though. A tip for directing you to the self-checkout, no doubt.

[akerl_]

Am I missing something? The article text suggests these are "mandatory fees and surcharges that are not included in the headline price", but all the screenshots from Marriott's site show the all-in total, inclusive of the fees, when you're searching, and then break down the elements of that price when you pay.

What's being hidden here?

[josephcsible]

Even if nothing were being hidden, there's still the issue that the hotels make you pay these sorts of junk fees even when you're supposed to be getting the room for free with points.

[WildGreenLeave]

I used the Marriott app inside the US and what I found is that you have to specifically select the price to include everything. By default it is the rate without all other required items (e.g. tax). Maybe this is the difference?

[quacksilver]

The title made me think people were leaving trash in their hotel rooms (quickly resolved by visiting and reading it)

I wonder if you would get billed for forgetting your CRTs / tyres / hazardous waste / bags of asbestos when you checked out, if that was not explicitly in the contract...

[anon291]

I don't know the details but if this fee is required even for rewards redemptions, is it a local tax? If so .. i wouldn't necessarily expect tax to be included in the rate.

[JustLurking2022]

I've never understood how it isn't false advertising to have non-tax/non-optional fees stacked on top of the "price".

[exabrial]

This is not a junk fee, it's a junk law. Stupid in, stupid out.

[blamazon]

What's stupid about the law? Do you perhaps have experience in hospitality in the LA area and/or can help illuminate the situation for us, so as to try to persuade us of your opinion?

Here's a summary of the ordinance for anyone who's not familiar:

https://wagesla.lacity.org/sites/g/files/wph1941/files/2022-...

And what I think is the full text:

https://wagesla.lacity.org/sites/g/files/wph1941/files/2022-...

Doesn't seem that stupid to me as a layperson, reading through it. I'm curious what you see at issue here.

There's even a one-year waiver available for financial hardship, and it appears some or all of the protections could be waived under a collective bargaining agreement.

[josephcsible]

Sure, the law is stupid, but that doesn't make the fee okay. Complying with laws, even stupid ones, is a cost of doing business.

[macinjosh]

I don’t see the issue they aren’t charging the fee. The government is. The anger is severely misplaced here. Consumers should know why prices go up.

[nirimda]

Do you seriously think any company is ever going to give you a fully accurate and itemised bill, that identifies which costs were incurred because of legal compliance, which costs were incurred in the pursuit of profit, which costs are pay and benefits for employees, which costs were incurred to acquire consumable resources etc? This is not how ordinary businesses act, and it's dishonest to imply that that's all they're doing here.