U.S. hotels and resorts will once again charge a record-high
amount of fees that aren't included in the room rate, as hotel operators take
advantage of high occupancy rates and charge for services that had
previously been complimentary.
Guests will be charged about $2.7 billion in fees this year,
up about 4% from last year, according to a study by Bjorn Hanson, clinical
professor at New York University's Jonathan M. Tisch Center for Hospitality and
Tourism.
While about 2% of that increase is attributable to more
rooms being booked, hotels are also charging more in cancellation fees,
business-center fees, bag-storage fees and catch-all resort fees. Such charges have a profit margin of up to 90%.
More Las Vegas hotels are charging for early
check-in, while more suburban hotels are charging for on-site parking. Such fee
increases are more than offsetting the drop in WiFi fees, wrote Hanson.
This year, U.S. hotel revenue will rise almost 5% to $158.5
billion, according to Phocuswright, indicating that fees account for about 1.7%
of U.S. room revenue.
U.S. hotel fees have risen every year since 2010 and have
almost doubled since 2005.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) in early 2016 proposed a bill
mandating that hotels include resort fees and all other mandatory charges in
the published room rate.