Planning a holiday in the US? This hidden fee could add over £500 to the cost of your trip and you might not know until you get there
PLANNING to book a dream holiday to Las Vegas, or a family trip to Florida?
Make sure you read the small print – or you could be in for a nasty surprise.
Around four million UK Brits travel to the US every year and most head for popular resorts such as Vegas and Florida, or for the bright lights of New York.
But unsuspecting holidaymakers are getting stung by a local fee levied by hotels – which can add over £500 to a fortnight’s break.
The resort fee, collected at the hotels in the holiday hotspots, range from £25 to £36 per NIGHT.
That means a price hike of between £350 to £504.
Many claim the charges cover extras such as use of the swimming pool, the gym, coffee, wifi or newspapers.
But the fee is not optional and many Brits travelling to the States have been caught on the hop, because they were totally unaware of the added charge when they booked their trip.
US Senator Catherine McCaskill has been campaigning for an end to the fees, and recently proposed a bill to force resorts to be more up front.
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She said: “I don’t think it’s any of the government’s business what they charge for the rooms.
“But I want the consumers to know how much they are getting charged for their rooms.”
Depending on how you book your trip, the extra charge may not be obvious at the time of booking.
Some websites, including Expedia, clearly display the actual cost of the fee alongside its hotel listings.
For example, one deal for week in Sin City is advertised at “£1,629 + 307.17 USD due at the hotel.”
But for others, you need to dig deeper.
For example, Virgin’s search page includes the warning “Resort fees not included” and when you click through to the individual hotel the cost of the resort fee is clearly stated.
Thomas Cook’s website makes no mention of the charge in the ‘total price’ section in the initial search but, when you click through, and scroll down, the fees are stated under a section entitled ‘Your Hotel.’
On Thomson’s website, however, there is no mention of the fee until the end of the booking process, although the information is offered before final payment.
A spokesman for Virgin said: “Virgin Holidays strives to be as open, transparent and honest with our customers as possible and we mention third party resort fees across multiple customer touch-points.
“When customers begin the online booking process we again mention resort fees in a highlighted section and don’t allow them to proceed to payment until they confirm they have read and understood this important information.
“While we believe we adequately address resort fees, we always listen to our customers, and have recently highlighted these further by adding a paragraph about resort fees to our master Las Vegas destination page.”
Thomas Cook told us: ““When booking a Thomas Cook package holiday to Las Vegas on thomascook.com, all information on resort fees are set out in the ‘Your Hotel’ information section of the website.”
We have also contacted Thomson for a comment.
American tourism organisation Brand USA declined to comment.
A statement from ABTA said: ";“Some hotels in the USA will require customers to pay a daily resort fee as part of their stay. This will not usually be included in the price of the holiday, because it is paid to the hotel and not to the UK travel company.
"ABTA requires its Members to provide their customers with clear information that this is an additional charge that they will have to pay whilst on holiday.”
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Last month we revealed ten things most passengers don't know about their flight.
