This is a big win for consumers.
When booking a hotel, Marriott will show resort fees.
The concept of hotels charging destination fees is frustrating for consumers.
Hotels usually bundle some amenities for a nightly fee in order to make more money.
Some hotels have a bad habit of "drip pricing," whereby the cost of a hotel stay increases as you go through the booking process, in order to make the rate seem lower than it actually is.
There are other reasons for these kinds of fees, including online travel agencies not getting commission on that portion of the rate, and in some areas there are tax benefits to this as well.
Marriott faced several lawsuits over the practice of charging resort fees, and there is finally a victory for consumers here, thanks to a settlement with the Attorney General of Pennsylvania.
Marriott has committed to prominently disclose the total price of a hotel stay, including room rate and all other mandatory fees, on the first page of its booking website. Marriott will be implementing these changes within the next nine months.
Marriott is the first hotel group to formally commit to upfront disclosure of resort fees as part of the initial advertised price, a practice that should be an industry standard.
This applies to properties in the United States, and to the rates being displayed through Marriott's booking channels.
Fees will have to be disclosed more clearly.
Marriott made a statement about the settlement.
Marriott issued a statement after the settlement was reached.
Marriott International has always made sure that the resort/destination fees charged by hotels in the U.S. are clearly stated. For many years, consistent with guidance from the Federal Trade Commission, we have clearly disclosed such fees on our channels throughout the booking process, with disclosures on multiple pages before the customer chooses to book a room. We have controls in place to make sure that hotels in our system that include a resort/destination fee adhere to strict criteria, which includes a requirement to provide amenities that have a value exceeding the amount of the resort/destination fee. We will be updating the room rate display over the next several months in accordance with the agreement we have with the State of Pennsylvania.
The only part of that statement that is honest is the last sentence, since the only way to increase resort fees is to eliminate them.
Marriott is excited to increase resort fees.
It will be interesting for online travel agencies.
The major online travel agencies have a love-hate relationship with the hotel groups. The hotel groups do everything they can to make sure you don't book through a third party because they don't want to pay the commission. Over the years, hotel groups have created incentives to book direct, rather than through a third party.
The settlement has some interesting implications.
Many online travel agencies hated resort fees since they didn't get a commission on that portion of the rate, and many would rank hotels with these fees lower in search results.
This settlement only applies to rates being displayed through Marriott's booking channels, not through third parties.
It is possible that online travel agencies have an opportunity to display rates without these fees, which would make it appear that you are paying a much lower rate when booking through them rather than directly with the hotel.
I wonder if we could eventually see these fees eliminated, since they can't be used to make rates appear lower upfront, and to the contrary, they give online travel agencies a leg up.
I am curious about the long term implications of this change.
The bottom line.
Marriott will start showing resort fees and destination fees as part of the initial price when doing a search on marriott.com. This is great for consumers.
I will be watching to see how this will affect the practice of charging these fees. I think this will slow down the pace at which hotels add these fees. I would love to see resort fees eliminated completely, but I don't think that will happen.
What do you think about Marriott having to show these fees more clearly?
Ben is the founder of OMAAT.
