I am not a fan of the tipping culture here in the US as I wrote about it before. I find the pricing practice in the hospitality in the US equally annoying.
I was trying to book a place in Chicago for an upcoming trip. Here is how a room’s price looks on AirBnb:
The initial listed price you see is just 66% of the final price you pay. All the fees make up 33% of the final bill. Wonder what it’s like on OTAs such as Booking.com?
After everything is added, the final price is 25% higher than the advertised price. Resort fees are basically what hotels charge you for the use of amenities and facilities on top of the base room. Think of it this way, instead of pricing everything (base room + facilities) together, hotels break them out in order to charge more. It’s worth noting that not every hotel charges resort fees.
I am not saying that the properties have to eat up the taxes themselves. Nonetheless, I would feel more comfortable if they could just advertise the final prices, including everything. The prices will be higher, but so will be the competitors. So relatively speaking, there won’t be any loss of pricing appeal, but the consumers such as myself won’t feel deceived.
Minh Quang Duong 