Why do high-end hotels insist on charging for Wi-Fi service or "resort fees"?

It's sleazy, black-hat marketing. They count on you to pay it rather than kick up a fuss. Often, they will remove the charge if you persist in objecting after they make one attempt to 'explain' it to you (they try that much because some people will, however willingly or grudgingly, come around with an attempt at explanation). It's like that catch on FreeCreditReport.com and similar sites that you don't notice in the fine print, that signs you up in some sort of 'savings club' having a very unclear, if any, purpose, at a $3.00 monthly charge on your credit card bill: a lot of people let it slide, at least for a few months, rather than call them up, wait on hold for twenty minutes, and demand to cancel the 'enrollment'.

One of my own pet peeves in that area is that dollar per night extra charge that gets tacked on to your bill for 'insurance' on the contents of your in-room safe, whether you use the safe or not. Most people don't notice it. Even the contract with the safe supplier provides that the hotel is supposed to take it off if someone complains about it. There may even be a case where an in-room safe was broken into, someone made a claim on that insurance, and the insurance paid off the claim, but I'm not aware of any.

Why is paid internet access in hotels so shoddy?

Free internet access in a hotel is often shoddy.  Internet access is nearly always outsourced, and in many hotels, outsourced as on the cheap as possible.

And it's often outsourced to someone whose ability and enthusiasm for marketing exceeds their ability and enthusiasm for delivering a decent product that works, providing adequate bandwidth to keep up with demand, etc. 



For example, Ethostream, Choice Hotels' provider for internet, is a disease. Bandwidth is kind of thin (you get what you pay for), and every time you log in, you get that 'terms of service' screen which, once you approve the TOS, only gives you 24 hours of use before it cuts you off unexpectedly, and you have to go approve the TOS again (often having to close your browser and reopen it in the process). The TOS screen redirects you to the hotel's webpage - and provides its own address bar (like anyone's going to use that rather than the one on their own browser): apparently, this provider has a captive audience and plans to milk it for all it's worth, to the extent that it can. There's also a countdown clock on that address bar telling you how much time you have left, but most people are not going to use that address bar or even leave that screen open. And at least three or four times a week in some hotels, the switchboard lights up like a Christmas tree, with unhappy guests complaining that there's no internet, and the clerk usually has to leave the desk on autopilot (often at an inopportune time) and go reset the router.

Why do expensive hotels nickel and dime you?

Because they can. And in the end, nobody really cares.

(You and I don't count. While I was writing this one up, I recalled that a quarter century ago, they came up with a hotel brand that was all but made for people like you and I who go nuts with all the 'extra' charges, having to deal with people who are in the 'fee collection' business; and went overboard with my weakness for storytelling . . . If it's any consolation, I did come up with an idea for a new venture.)

There are several reasons why.

• A few years back when I was on a trip to my mother's home, my mom, who developed a liking for plush, late-model American-made luxury cars as she reached a point in life where she could afford them if she bought them slightly used, was shopping for a Cadillac or a Lincoln for herself on Cars.com, but - ever my frugal mom -  going nuts because she couldn't find a model that uses regular gas. All Cadillac and Lincoln models, it appears, use premium. Every time she'd find another car on Cars.com and Edmunds that she liked, it would be the same thing: she'd look up the model and find she'd have to buy premium gas for it. She was starting to drive me and my stepfather a little nuts with it, too. I told her, Mom, a guy goes out and spends fifty to seventy-five grand to buy a brand new Caddy, he's not going to be the type to complain about having to pay an extra thirty cents a gallon on gas at three dollars and something per gallon. If he were, he'd do like I do, get a Honda, VW or Toyota for half as much that works just as well and burns regular. So, they don't bother to design them to burn regular gas. But for the last few months, the extra cost, high-test gas has been my problem. The last two years have not been my mother's best: she has been diagnosed with cancer and isn't going to be with us much longer. She has done some estate planning, cashed some insurance policies; and more recently divided up some money and property among my brother, sister and myself. In the process of getting herself down to one vehicle, she gave me one of her Cadillacs. I like Cadillacs and Town Cars but I don't have a particular preference for them like she did for the last fifteen years: quite frankly, the extra forty cents a gallon for premium gas is one of the reasons why. But I like having my mom's Caddy and am glad she thought of me. It happened just as I needed to replace a vehicle; but rather than buy one, I now have something that belonged to my mom that I should get a few more years out of after she's gone. That means more to me than the brand. So, I make my peace with the high-test gas: it's part of the price of having that car. (Late note, March 30, 2014  ) It works the same way for hotels, if you'd rather stay at a Ritz-Carlton or St. Regis rather than a Hampton Inn or a Courtyard. If you want the product, and don't care if it's a little more pricy, then you're not as likely to notice, or complain about, the extras that come with it but are priced separately. Those are part of the price.

Why do high-end hotels insist on charging for Wi-Fi service or "resort fees"?

It's sleazy, black-hat marketing. They count on you to pay it rather than kick up a fuss. Often, they will remove the charge if you persist in objecting after they make one attempt to 'explain' it to you (they try that much because some people will, however willingly or grudgingly, come around with an attempt at explanation). It's like that catch on FreeCreditReport.com and similar sites that you don't notice in the fine print, that signs you up in some sort of 'savings club' having a very unclear, if any, purpose, at a $3.00 monthly charge on your credit card bill: a lot of people let it slide, at least for a few months, rather than call them up, wait on hold for twenty minutes, and demand to cancel the 'enrollment'.



One of my own pet peeves in that area is that dollar per night extra charge that gets tacked on to your bill for 'insurance' on the contents of your in-room safe, whether you use the safe or not. Most people don't notice it. Even the contract with the safe supplier provides that the hotel is supposed to take it off if someone complains about it. There may even be a case where an in-room safe was broken into, someone made a claim on that insurance, and the insurance paid off the claim, but I'm not aware of any.