There really is no limit to how low some hotels in the United States will go when it comes to nickel-and-diming guests.
Holiday Inn Express Elko charges two ridiculous fees
The Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites in Elko, Nevada, is getting some attention on FlyerTalk for the fees that it’s charging (thanks to View from the Wing for flagging this). Specifically, the hotel has two fees all guests must pay, in addition to the standard 15% tax:
- There’s a $12.95 nightly energy recovery fee
- There’s a 3% credit card surcharge
The credit card surcharge doesn’t show when you first search for a hotel room, but on the booking page, the total cost breakdown does factor this in. Credit card surcharges for hotels in the United States are incredibly rare, and you really only see rogue hotels trying to pull something like this off.
Even worse is the $12.95 nightly energy recovery fee. I’m not sure what’s worse — that the hotel doesn’t think electricity is something that should be included with the room rate, the amount being charged, or the fact that this fee is barely disclosed.
When you go to book, the $12.95 isn’t added to the room rate, but instead on the final booking page, there’s an “Additional charges” section that lists this fee, and it’s noted that it’s “not included in rate per night.” In other words, most people will completely miss this, and this will be an unpleasant surprise at check-out.
Hotel groups need to rein in their properties
It sure seems like many hotels in the United States have forgotten that they’re in the hospitality industry. Or maybe I’ve just been naively thinking that they’re in the hospitality business, when that hasn’t been the case all along.
The issue is that guests aren’t actually the customers of the major global hotel groups, but rather the hotel owners are. The major hotel groups care about signing new properties and growing their portfolios, and we’re the product that they can sell to prospective hotel investors.
Still, something needs to be done to better prevent hotels from engaging in these kinds of practices. Does IHG know that this hotel is charging a credit card fee? Is Chase okay with that, given that Chase issues the IHG co-branded credit card? Is IHG okay with the hotel charging a $12.95 nightly fee, but not including it in the cost breakdown?
As I’ve often said, hotels should be able to charge whatever rates they want to, and they can break them down however they’d like. What’s important is that there’s transparency about what the total cost of a hotel stay is (including all mandatory fees), and that this is clear from early in the booking process. This way consumers can compare their options, and vote with their wallets.
If a room rate is $100, I don’t care whether you want to say that $40 of it is for the room, $20 of it is for housekeeping, $20 of it is to pay for the mortgage, $10 is for electricity, $10 is for front desk staffing, etc. It doesn’t matter. Just charge me what you’re going to charge me, and tell me how much that’s going to be. But to charge an energy fee and not even clearly disclose it is unethical at best.
Truth be told, I rarely stay at hotels in the United States anymore, and do very little domestic travel. That’s partly because I just don’t enjoy most hotels in the United States very much. Staying at a hotel in the United States is just frustrating more often than not, with a business model in line with what you’d expect from an ultra low cost carrier.
Bottom line
The Holiday Inn Express in Elko, Nevada, is charging a $12.95 nightly energy recovery fee, plus a 3% credit card surcharge. While the credit card surcharge is being added to the room total during check-out, the $12.95 energy recovery fee isn’t, and is likely an unpleasant surprise that most guests are finding out about at check-out.
What do you make of the fees being charged by this Holiday Inn Express in Nevada?
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