When a new law is passed by an official agency of a government that requires an additional expense on businesses which are affected, the usual result is for the companies to pass one the extra cost to their customers — and a new mandatory fee which is now being imposed by some hotel properties in Los Angeles appears to be no exception.
New Mandatory Daily Lodging Fee: Hotel Worker Protection Ordinance Costs Surcharge
Eric Garcetti — who is the current mayor of the city of Los Angeles — signed the Hotel Worker Protection Ordinance into law this past summer. The Hotel Worker Protection Ordinance — which was created to increase the safety of employees in the lodging industry while also ensuring fairer compensation and improving the general work environment — imposes compliance obligations on hotel properties which operate in the city of Los Angeles and authorizes huge financial penalties and damage lawsuits for noncompliance.
“This new law provides for security measures to protect hotel workers from sexual assault and threatening conduct, and fair compensation through a wage premium for heavy workloads in hotels with over 45 guest rooms”, according to this official press release from the office of the mayor of Los Angeles. “These new provisions will give hotel workers an environment in which they are allowed to thrive.”
The notice of the rights of employees of lodging companies became effective as of Monday, August 12, 2022 — and the costs of complying with the new law likely increased…
…but instead of simply increasing room rates, some hotel properties decided instead to apply a daily mandatory fee to offset the increased expenses.
As originally reported in this discussion on FlyerTalk by FlyerTalk member rambling man, the Los Angeles Airport Marriott hotel property is now imposing a mandatory daily fee of $10.72 — plus tax — onto the folios of its guests, prompting him to ask, “wow, what a mouthful of mumbo-jumbo. is this a cost that the hotel in incurring due to an ordinance? isn’t that just a cost of doing business and should be included in the room rate? and if this is due to an ordinance, why aren’t the other marriotts at LAX charging this?”
FlyerTalk members have reported that other hotel properties have indeed starting charging a similar fee: including the Renaissance Los Angeles Airport Hotel and a Kimpton hotel property, which are properties that are affiliated with Marriott International, Incorporated and InterContinental Hotels Group respectively.
Using random dates of checking in on Monday, December 5, 2022 and checking out on Tuesday, December 6, 2022, the process of booking a reservation at the official Internet web site of the Los Angeles Airport Marriott hotel property reveals a notice in blue:
Please note – A daily Hotel Worker Protection Ordinance Costs Surcharge-local fee of USD 10.72 plus tax will be added to the room rate.
A check of the Renaissance Lost Angeles Airport Hotel for the same dates revealed a similar — albeit less expensive — notice in blue:
Please note – A daily Hotel Worker Protection Ordinance Costs Surcharge-local fee of USD 8.70 plus tax will be added to the room rate.
Final Boarding Call
I have no issue with corporations and businesses passing on additional expenses to their customers — especially when it comes to strengthening the protections of employees who may be unfairly treated — but simply raise the room rates if additional costs need to be covered or revenue needs to be increased.
Regardless of how clearly the notice may be early on in the process of booking a reservation, engaging in tacking on a mandatory fee is similar to imposing other junk fees which are designed more to deceive potential customers than anything else.
A mandatory daily Hotel Worker Protection Ordinance Costs Surcharge fee is no different than a mandatory destination fee, mandatory resort fee, mandatory amenities fee, mandatory facilities fee, a mandatory damage waiver fee, or a mandatory room fee, of which links to past articles which have been posted here at The Gate are found here in this article…
Photograph ©2016 by Brian Cohen.
