Remember when hotel and resort properties implemented energy surcharges to cover rising utility bills back in 2000 — often without advance notice to you, the guest? Some hotel properties even charged a fee just for having a telephone in your room — whether you used it or not. Lawsuits against lodging companies were filed. The result was that lawyers were paid handsomely; while you were offered a coupon. Whoopie.
Watch Out: Hotel Energy Surcharges Are Slowly Returning in 2021
As a result of a number of recent factors — such as rising fuel prices and financial losses from the current 2019 Novel Coronavirus pandemic as two examples — hotel and resort properties are scrambling to find creative ways of increasing revenue in order to be more profitable…
…and one of those ways is the return of the energy surcharge. Yes, that electricity that is provided to your room during your stay may actually be an extra charge — whether you use it or not — rather than being included in the room rate.
As one example, take a look at the fine print at the bottom of the official Internet web site of the Artisan Hotel Boutique in Las Vegas…
…which informs that “Artisan’s standard $19.95 resort fee & $3.95 daily energy surcharge applies.”
In booking a random reservation for checking in on Tuesday, July 6, 2021 and checking out the next day on Wednesday, July 7, 2021, as the displayed rate is $36.00…
…the next screen shows that the lowest room rate is actually $45.00 for the rack rate…
…unless you know to click on the small chevron to the right of the room rate, where the promotion rate of $36.00 must be selected in order to procure that rate.
Perhaps members of the management team at the hotel property are hoping that someone thinks “I thought I saw $36.00? Oh, well — that must be sold out. $45.00 is still not a bad rate for a night. I will just go along with that rate.”
Anyway, the initially hidden promotion rate of $36.00 was chosen…
…and the total cost of the room for the night winds up being $67.92, which is almost double the room rate because it includes taxes and the resort fees. Note that the word fees is plural and not singular — and also note that you are charged taxes on those resort fees.
Something does not add up here — literally: $19.95 for the resort fees plus $3.95 for the daily energy surcharge adds up to $23.90 and not $22.62. Is the daily energy surcharge not listed here?
Boutique hotel properties are not the only lodging options which are implementing energy surcharges. Hotel and resort properties which are part of multinational corporations are getting in on this scheme as well. As another example, take a look at Hyatt Place Chicago O’Hare for the same dates as the Artisan Hotel Boutique…
…and yes, there it is: an energy surcharge of $5.22 as part of the total cost of $175.08 for the night — at a Hyatt Place hotel property.
Summary
What — did you really think that life would return to normal as the current 2019 Novel Coronavirus pandemic started winding down after most of the entire planet was shut down and isolated? Did you really think that companies were simply going to charge you the same — or less — for products and services as they did before the pandemic after losing a substantial amount of money over the past 16 or so months?
For many of those companies, they are going to recoup their losses — and some of them will do so in unscrupulous ways.
As for a mandatory daily energy surcharge, that is at least as execrable and odious as the infamous mandatory resort fee; and lodging companies should not be allowed to charge it — especially as electricity and hot water are absolutely necessary when staying in a room for the night. A lodging company should simply increase the room rate if more revenue is needed to operate a hotel property.
Combined with shortages of various products and services, you are about to get gouged from all ends by many companies in most industries — and the lodging industry is certainly no exception.
Until further notice and for the foreseeable future, be extra careful about the products and services you choose — and ensure that you avoid staying at lodging companies which charge a mandatory daily energy surcharge, as they do not deserve your money or patronage.
That I vehemently oppose the implementation of mandatory daily resort fees, facilities fees and destination fees is no secret to you if you have been a reader of The Gate for years — they should either be optional or eliminated altogether, along with mandatory daily energy surcharges — and I will just let this extensive body of work over the years pertaining to mandatory daily resort fees speak for me…
- Resort Fees Have Quietly Increased March 2021 at These Hotel Properties in Las Vegas
- MGM Resorts Sued for False Advertising Via Resort Fees by Travelers United
- Resort Fees and Parking Fees Temporarily Eliminated in Las Vegas at These Hotel and Casino Properties
- Greater Than 15 Percent Increase in Mandatory Resort Fees in Las Vegas at…
- Mandatory Resort Fees to Increase at Four Hotels March 2020 in Las Vegas
- Resort Fee Class Action Settlement 2019: Your Chance to Get Your Share of Money or Points From Wyndham Hotel Group
- Search Rankings Lowered For Hotels Which Charge Resort Fees: Expedia Group
- Deceptive Hotel Resort Fees: Legislation Introduced to Protect Consumers 2019
- Mandatory Resort Fees Increase at Three MGM Hotel and Casino Properties in Las Vegas
- Hilton Sued For Charging Deceptive Resort Fees by Attorney General of Nebraska
- Resort Fees are Here to Stay, According to the Chief Executive Officer of Marriott International
- The Importance of Not Abusing Trust
- Marriott International Sued For Charging Deceptive Resort Fees by Attorney General of District of Columbia
- One Simple Way to Reclaim That Resort Fee Which You Paid
- Even Worse: Mandatory Resort Fees as Percentage of Room Rate
- Why Are You Surprised That Resort Fees “Provide Real Tangible Value” to You?
- 4 Reasons Why Mandatory Resort Fees May Finally Be Disappearing
- Wait a Minute…A Hostel Which Charges a Resort Fee?!?
- 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 ©2014 by Brian Cohen.
