Depending on where you are staying, being charged an extra fee for inviting a visitor to your hotel room may be standard practice — despite how often you may have stayed at the hotel or resort property and regardless of whether or not you have earned elite level status in a frequent travel loyalty program.
$60 Visitor Fee Because She Might Be a Prostitute?
The front desk clerk at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Cariari San Jose informed FlyerTalk member jdsphoto that he was not allowed to have a visitor without first paying $60.00. “This after I had had visitors a few times before that with no mention of a fee, and an email I received later from the front desk manager seemed to infer that it is a company wide policy to charge $60 for visitors. When I pushed Hilton Guest Assistance for clarification on this, they went silent”, jdsphoto posted in this discussion on FlyerTalk. “This was the 14th night within a month that I had stayed here as a Diamond. The visitor was a Costa Rican woman, actually my best friend. It was 11am, and I was checking out at 1pm. We do remote construction design, and she was coming to work with me. And lastly, she had been there as a registered visitor 3 other times during those 14 days I had been there, but the obvious difference with those visits was that she was either with her boyfriend, or another friend of ours, also a male, that we work with. This time she arrived alone.”
This led jdsphoto to think that “My feeling is that this guy presumed she was a prostitute, because why else would a Costa Rican woman being visiting a gringo at a hotel?”
One FlyerTalk member wondered that — in this day and age — do we really assume that every woman visiting a room is a prostitute?
“It is a hooker fee”, posted FlyerTalk member Jaimito Cartero. “Complain to the manager, and to corporate if the manager doesn’t fix it.”
Summary
“You almost certainly agreed to this charge when you checked in. It is very common in latin america. They typically have you sign a specific acknowledgment agreeing to pay”, according to FlyerTalk member Kacee, who acknowledged that this policy is specific to individual hotel and resort properties and not a corporate policy of any lodging company. “Yes, it’s ridiculous. But it is very common and usually fully disclosed.”
I can understand a hotel or resort property not wanting to be transformed into a makeshift brothel for men who frequently travel and want to…er…be relieved…
…but is the “hooker fee” really necessary — or is it yet another way for hotel and resort properties to profit off of their guests at little to no cost to themselves?
I am not certain as to what exactly is the answer to that question — but I would not consider staying at a place known for its unencumbered prostitution traffic…
…and I have never been charged a “hooker fee” at any hotel or resort property at which I have stayed; so I fortunately have no experience with this…
The original image of Penny Flame by Alan of Chicago and uploaded by Sodakan was used under the Creative Commons 3.0 license and is found here. Illustration and alteration of the image is by Brian Cohen.
