Released: September 25, 2011

Now you don’t see extra fees, now you do

Source: David Segal, The New York Times

In this episode: more on fees. We begin with an update from our last adventure, which focused on resort fees, those annoying, undodgeable charges that are frequently tacked on to hotel bills, typically for stuff you didn’t ask for and don’t want. In the previous column, Priceline explained why it was unable to include those fees in the rates it publishes on the site. (In brief: It encourages hotels to include the fees, but can’t force them to do so.) But we didn’t hear from a resort-fee-charging hotel. So let’s meet Alan Feldman, a senior vice president at MGM Resorts. One of the chain’s hotels in Las Vegas, the MGM Grand, charges a $20 resort fee, for which visitors, according to the hotel’s Web site, receive Wi-Fi, a copy of USA Today, free local and toll-free calls, “limited” business center services and access to the cardio room. (Free toll-free calls? MGM Resorts, you are too kind.)

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