We’ve seen an increasing number of hotels add “destination fees” to room rates. Initially this trend started at resorts with “resort fees,” but clearly city hotels wanted in on the action as well. The concept of destination fees is that hotels claim to add some perks for all guests, and then introduce a mandatory daily fee to cover it.
Why do this rather than just raising the room rate? There are a variety of reasons — through many booking channels the initial rate will appear lower this way when booking, the hotel doesn’t have to pay travel agents a commission on these fees, and sometimes there are even tax benefits.
Sometimes you see a destination fee with such ridiculous inclusions that you can’t help but just call it out…
In this post:
Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor $25 destination fee
When hotels have destination fees, they seem to love to make the list of inclusions as long as possible, even if there’s no merit to it. And that brings us to the Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor‘s $25 nightly destination fee. This includes the following:
- Premium WIFI
- Local & Domestic LD only
- Morning Drip Coffee at Harborside Grill
- Daily Newspaper
- Panoramic Views of Boston with photo opportunity
- 2 water bottles daily
- Waived Rollaway bed fee
- Discount area attractions
- Discount round-trip Water Taxi Ticket
- $10 Food Credit in Harborside Grill (Dinner Only)
- 10% off of laundry/dry cleaning
- $10 Overnight Self -Parking Credit
- Boston gift bag with memento magnet, chocolate truffle, and Boston Baked Beans
- Waived fee for incoming/outgoing faxes and printing
Does anything on that list stand out?
There’s a lot of questionable stuff on this list of destination fee inclusions, though one thing stands out in particular — panoramic views of Boston with photo opportunity? Really?! This is purely speculation on my part, but I would have to imagine that the hotel included these views as a standard amenity before a destination fee was added.
And that also gets at the double charging going on with resort fees:
- Hotels are typically (in part) priced based on the views that they offer
- The hotel sells rooms with a harbor view at a premium
So do you get the destination fee waived if you book a harbor view room, since you’re already paying extra for the view? Or does that not include a photo opportunity?
I’m not sure if this is better or worse than Hyatt’s Motif Seattle, which included use of the in-room vanity with the destination fee. The hotel manager reached out after the post, and claimed that was included in error. Right.
C’mon hotels, if you’re going to charge a destination fee (but please don’t), at least don’t make up a long list of fake things that are included. If the hotel were being honest, this should say:
A destination fee of $25.00 (tax included) will apply to each night of your stay and includes more money in the pockets of hotel owners and reduced commissions for travel agents.
Bottom line
The Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor has a daily destination fee of $25. These fees are a frustrating practice in general. What’s even more frustrating is when hotels include fake things as part of this fee, like… a nice view with photo opportunities.
My guess is that the hotel will soon claim that this was an “error.”
(Tip of the hat to View from the Wing)
I stayed in the Boston, Tremont Nine Zero in late Jan 2022
My first and last time. The hotel is gloomy and the lighting in the common areas is dim and all the dark wood makes for a very poorly lit hotel. The lighting in the rooms is also poor. No over head light. Just a selection of desk and standing lamps.
My biggest gripe is - yes you guessed it - the...
I stayed in the Boston, Tremont Nine Zero in late Jan 2022
My first and last time. The hotel is gloomy and the lighting in the common areas is dim and all the dark wood makes for a very poorly lit hotel. The lighting in the rooms is also poor. No over head light. Just a selection of desk and standing lamps.
My biggest gripe is - yes you guessed it - the $25+Taxes facility fee.
Bearing in mind “due to Covid” the restaurant and bar are closed and all they could offer was a morning coffee in the foyer - not even a cookie to go with it. No coffee maker in room only water at $8 per bottle.
I know things are not normal but all totalled up I just paid $498 for 2 nights is a very average room. When I challenged the facility the receptionist was not interested and just gave me a phone number / email address.
Not going back there again
Thank you for this information. I’ll be crossing it off my list.
I am not sure why bother being loyal to a hotel frequent stay program when I am now being charged for many of the so called “benefits” I previously earned with my program status.
Guests should have the option to refuse the services and therefore the fee.
Recently had a paid stay at this Hyatt and I was not impressed. The view was nice but "the premium" internet wasn't premium at all. I didn't get a bag with beans or the newspaper and they charged me 3 0ne-way tickets for the water taxi despite the fact that I had a rental and was in their parking lot. None of those "benefits" where offered. Luckily, just by asking in the front desk, due...
Recently had a paid stay at this Hyatt and I was not impressed. The view was nice but "the premium" internet wasn't premium at all. I didn't get a bag with beans or the newspaper and they charged me 3 0ne-way tickets for the water taxi despite the fact that I had a rental and was in their parking lot. None of those "benefits" where offered. Luckily, just by asking in the front desk, due to globalist status, I was waived the destination fee and the parking fee. Definitely will not stay there again in the future.
Ben, come on! They would have sold me with the free faxes!
Jokes aside, there's a whole of nothing on that list :-)
Cool, another Hyatt property to avoid, making status even harder to retain given their weak distribution of properties.
I've stayed at this Hyatt a few times and have enjoyed my stays there, but most of the time their rates are hard to justify for what you get. Yes, it does have really good views of the airport and Boston Harbor, but you can get those elsewhere without paying $25. If I'm staying next to the...
Cool, another Hyatt property to avoid, making status even harder to retain given their weak distribution of properties.
I've stayed at this Hyatt a few times and have enjoyed my stays there, but most of the time their rates are hard to justify for what you get. Yes, it does have really good views of the airport and Boston Harbor, but you can get those elsewhere without paying $25. If I'm staying next to the airport, it's because I have a late arriving or early departing flight. At best, I might spend 10-12 hours max at the hotel, and 90% of that time I'll be sleeping and not taking in the $25 view.
There's a whole lot of value missing from Boston hotels...
Since they don't charge for roll-away bed fees, wouldn't it be interesting if everyone requested one. The number needed, space for storage and staff time rolling beds up and down the halls would be impressive.
Airlines were happily playing these silly games up until the feds put an end to it and mandated they advertise fares with all taxes and fees. Time for hotels to suffer the same fate. These resort and destination fees constitute false advertising and consumer fraud. There is no reasonable justification for them. Charge for these services a la cart or raise the rates.
I love that it includes baked beans. That is a new one.
I hope it's a vending machine package of the candied peanuts that go by that name and not actual baked beans out of a hotel pan over sterno for 12 hours.
I do see 2 items that might help to offset the fee.
$10 nightly food credit
$10 daily self parking credit (if you have a car)
Lol @ parking. The $10 off is what everyone pays as everyone is staying at the hotel and paying the dest. fee. There’s only one price.
And 8-24hr parking is $46 to start
Without any asterisks (*), I'm quite confident this $25 is well worth it if you play your cards correctly.
Let's see if their management reads this blog or not.
It's meaningless to say that it's worth it because you have no choice whether or not to pay it.
It may be that the room price, fee included, is worth it. Or not.
@Url
I'm looking from a different angle. Yes one could argue just purely on the final bill, but then it's no different than comparing an all inclusive hotel with a room only hotel.
Yes I have no choice but to pay $25. But what if I can actually get more than $25 out of it. Then it's worth it. At least to stick it up Hyatt's face. Remember the other property than a Tesla charge is included, if you charge enough than it's worth it.
Unlike Marriott, at least Hyatt and Hilton waive resort/destination fees on free night awards. This is a major reason for me switching my loyalty from Marriott to Hyatt. I have tons of Marriott points I’m attempting to burn up. But I will only use them at properties that don’t charge those fees.
Makes it easy to decide which hotels NOT to book!!
I am from Boston. I certainly don't think the view is worth any extra penny. What a ridiculous claim by the hotel.