“Even hostels are charging it. Freehand Hostel in Miami charges $25/day resort fee” is the comment which Waylo — who is a reader of The Gate — posted in response to this article pertaining to a resort fee which was tacked on to a room whose rate was $36.00 per night.
Wait a Minute…A Hostel Which Charges a Resort Fee?!?
I had to investigate this claim for myself. As Waylo did not provide a link to the property in question, I search for it via the Internet and found Freehand Miami, which actually appears to be a hybrid of hotel property and hostel.
The first “perk” which is extolled at the very top of its Internet web site home is the claim of “Discounted Rates (you can’t find anywhere else”, as shown in the image below…
…and when I clicked on booking a room, I was met with an eclectic mix of choices: bungalow, king, king suite, accessible, private premium quad, super 8, and quad.
As the quad and super 8 choices appear to be shared spaces which are similar to those found at a hostel, I clicked on the super 8 option, which appears to accommodate up to eight people in one room with eight twin bunks.
I chose the random date of Wednesday, May 15, 2019 for one night.
The rate to share a room — and two bathrooms — with up to seven other people for the night starts at $21.96.
When I chose the least expensive option, I clicked on View Price Breakdown — and there it was…
…a nightly resort fee of six dollars — which may not seem like much money; but the resort fee alone represents an increase of greater than 27 percent. That does not include Florida state sales tax of seven percent; a resort tax of four percent; and a municipal tax of three percent…
…but if the resort fee was not bad enough, Freehand Miami charges an additional 14 percent tax on that resort fee — meaning that the total resort fee of $6.84 alone is actually more like an increase of almost 31.14 percent on the initial room rate of $21.96.
What you get in return for paying that resort fee is a complimentary breakfast, high speed Wi-Fi, pool essentials, complimentary bike rentals, curated events and activities for guests. While at least some of those items sound useful — I have no idea what is included in the complimentary breakfast — I cannot see why the room rate could not simply start at $28.80. That is still a low price towards what seems to be an idea target market of guest aged between 18 years old and 25 years old.
In case you were wondering where Waylo came up with a mandatory resort fee of $25.00, that is because the mandatory resort fee is $25.00 for private rooms and $6.00 for shared beds at Freehand Miami.
In other words, guests who want a private room not only pay more in terms of the room rate — which is understandable, given that some guest value privacy more than others — but they also pay a significantly higher amount for the mandatory resort fee for what seems to be the same exact items which are included in it…
…and if that is true, that is outright despicable.
Summary
…and here I thought that a mandatory resort fee charged at a Rodeway Inn hotel property was bad.
If you decided that you wanted to take advantage of the Upfront Savings room rate — which is the least expensive rate and you must pay in full at the time of booking your reservation — for Saturday, February 25, 2017 at Fisher Island Club in south Florida, the service charge per night of $160.50 represents a percentage increase of almost 14.6 percent over the initial room rate of $1,100.00 for the night…
…and while that may qualify for the most expensive resort fee per night which I have ever seen, that pales in comparison to the resort fee at Freehand Miami in terms of the percentage of the room rate, which — at almost a whopping 31.14 percent — is the highest percentage increase on the initial room rate which I have ever seen.
Congratulations, South Florida, for being the location of both lodging options which are located almost a mere five miles from each other and are two of the worst offenders pertaining to mandatory resort fees. Guests are required to pay resort fees which are either the most expensive or the highest in percentage of the original room rate which I have ever seen.
Stop with the games and the deception pertaining to perceived lower room rates; and just add those mandatory resort fees and include them in the room rate itself. Yeesh.
Other articles which I wrote over the years pertaining to mandatory resort fees include…
- Probe of Hotel Booking Sites Results in Enforcement Action in the United Kingdom
- Is This Flat Sales Tax Really a Mandatory Resort Fee in Disguise?
- Resort Fees: The Database of Lodging Options Which Charge Them
- Is This Secret to Ease the Pain of Paying Resort Fees Viable?
- The Destination Fee Plague Spreads Again — This Time, To…
- Another Way Mandatory Resort Fees are Deceptive
- Caesar’s Entertainment Properties to Increase Mandatory Resort Fees
- Resort Fees; Then Parking Fees: Are Free Drinks in Las Vegas In Jeopardy?
- What is Included in a Mandatory Resort Fee of $160.50 Per Night?
- Legislation Targets “Deceptive” Resort Fees
- New Parking Fees at Hotels: When Mandatory Resort Fees are Not Enough
- I Want In on This Resort Fee Nonsense: Open My Own Resort
- It’s Time to Put the Kibosh on Hotel Resort Fees? Now?!?
- Mandatory Resort Fees Can Add Up to 50% More to Your Room Rate With Useless Amenities
- Mandatory Facilities Fee: A Growing Deceptive Trend in Lodging?
- Help Me List Hotel Properties Here to Fight Resort Fees
- What If Other Businesses Surprised You With the Equivalent of Resort Fees?
- $40 Resort Fee at the Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort Starts June 1, 2015
- Lawsuit Alleges Daily Resort Fee Was Hidden From Room Rate at Booking
- Who Likes Resort Fees? Not Me
- A Resort Fee Added on a $36 Rodeway Inn Room?
Photograph ©2010 by Brian Cohen.
