We Shouldn’t Need This: Marriott Adds Ability To See All Fees When You Search

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Resort fees, facility fees, destination fees, urban fees and many more.  Hotels across the globe charge these fees on top of room rates as a way to earn extra money per room while hoping to avoid customers noticing until after they book a room.  As opposed to airline tickets, where they’ve been required for a number of years to show the full cost of a ticket, hotels are not currently bound by such legislation in the US.  Marriott seems to be the first major hotel chain to offer a way for customers to see the full cost including these fees while searching their website or app.

Marriott Adds Option To Show All Taxes and Fees

As reported on The Points Guy, Marriott has added an option to their website that allows customers to see the taxes and fees associated with a potential reservation.  When navigating to Marriott.com, you’ll see the option once you put in basic search criteria such as dates and location:

a screenshot of a phone

Here’s a random date search in Cancun for luxury hotels without this option checked:

a screenshot of a website

And, the same date range with “Show rates with taxes and all fees” checked:

a screenshot of a website

That’ll put a sting in your wallet, to the tune of another $132 per night, over a 30% increase over the base rate.  The option is also available as a filter on the mobile app.

Just Show The Full Price

Definitely not trying to kick folks when they’re down.  Marriott had some pretty painful furloughs at the corporate office recently, some folks I’ve known for years were part of it.  But, it really frustrates me that we even need an option like this.  Don’t get me wrong, this feature is definitely a step in the right direction.  But, if Marriott really wanted to shine a light on the true price of a hotel room, they’d make this the default option on their website, not require customers to find a small button.

At least you know where to find it, and how to get the real price of your next hotel stay without having to continuously click through to the booking page for every single property.  Progress on this issue has been slow, while many properties have quietly added these fees to hotel stays.  It’s bad for customers and creates a point of stress for front desk agents.  I do wonder if resort fees will take a back seat in the recession we find ourselves wading into.

Do you think this is a trend?  Will we see resort fees better outlined or possibly go away?

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