Many hotels, especially in the United States, have gotten a bit carried away when it comes to fees. We’ve seen resort fees and destination fees spread like crazy over the years, even as the government has stepped in to regulate them.
We’ve also seen hotels add all kinds of creative ways to nickel-and-dime customers, ranging from sustainability fees to package handling fees. Well, here’s a new one for me…
Hyatt Place St. Augustine Vilano Beach mandatory $25 parking fee
View from the Wing flags this LinkedIn post about the Hyatt Place St. Augustine / Vilano Beach. Long story short, the hotel has a mandatory $25 “hotel parking fee,” which covers valet parking, regardless of whether or not you have a car.
Now, the fee is sort of disclosed. When you go to book the hotel, you’ll see the following note on the rates page, explaining the $25 fee:
NOTICE: Hotel Parking Fee – $25 (+ Tax) per night, limit 1 vehicle per room. Fee includes full-service Valet Parking & access to Golf Cart Shuttle (Vilano Pier & Vilano Beach access only).
However, that doesn’t actually state that this is mandatory, and that it applies to all guests. Furthermore, when you go through the booking process, that $25 fee isn’t added to the rate, and doesn’t show with the taxes & fees breakdown, where all mandatory fees (like resort fees and destination fees) are supposed to be displayed.
I had wondered if maybe this was all a misunderstanding, and if this in fact wasn’t mandatory. However, I called the hotel’s front desk, and an associate confirmed this was in fact a mandatory fee, but talked about all the value it offers.
The guest who reported this explains that he complained to the hotel about this fee, and was told that he was given a letter at check-in outlining the mandatory fee. After a bit of an argument, a manager ultimately refunded the fee. He shares the below folio, and while this has nothing to do with the mandatory fee situation, PEOPLE STILL BUY IN-ROOM MOVIES AT HOTELS?! Man, over $50 in guest room movies…
Hotel groups need to rein in their properties
It sure seems like many hotels (especially in the United States) have forgotten that they’re in the hospitality industry. 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. The way I view it, there are a couple of issues at play here.
The biggest issue — and this borders on fraud — is the lack of disclosure. The hotel doesn’t make it clear that this is a mandatory fee, and then doesn’t include this mandatory fee in the section about taxes & fees, where it should be listed.
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 this hotel wants to have what ultimately amounts to a destination fee that includes parking, then so be it. But show us the rate including that from the beginning, so that consumers aren’t misled.
What I’m curious about is what the process is for hotels to have these “notes” up on their booking pages with these kinds of fees. Can hotels just freely edit that section however they’d like, or does that somehow go through corporate? And if it goes through corporate, are they just totally fine with these kinds of practices, or what?
I’d love to see a major hotel group take a stand on these kinds of fees, and create clear policies for hotels about what they can and can’t do.
Bottom line
The Hyatt Place St. Augustine / Vilano Beach has a $25 mandatory parking fee, regardless of whether or not a guest parks a car. While that seems a bit extreme, that’s the hotel’s prerogative, I suppose.
The issue is how this isn’t really clearly disclosed during the booking process. There’s mention of a $25 fee, but no mention of it being mandatory. Furthermore, it’s not included with the breakdown of mandatory fees when you click to confirm your booking. This is pretty low, if you ask me…
What do you make of this mandatory parking fee?
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