Comments on: Posh hotels: why do they make us hate them?

By: Andy Jarosz

Andy Jarosz — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 21:55:57 +0000

What does it say about the ethos of guest care in a property where their customers are forced to go to McD’s to save $30 for internet access? It’s damaging to the brand, and plain wrong. No question.

Carl, your description of hotels taking over the neighbouring streets and imposing a no-park zone just to cream off the parking fees is an appalling and contemptous way to treat guests. When will people start voting with their feet and avoiding these places until they start to act with decency to their guests?

Thank you Nellie and Carl for your comments.

By: Carl

Carl — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 16:48:21 +0000

I quite agree about the charges for the Internet and mandatory service fees, resort charges and the like. Access to the Internet should be provided to guests just like water and electricity are provided. Use of water and electricity actually creates a cost to the hotel. Internet access is a fixed cost that does not vary based on use. And the mandatory service fees and resort charges are simply deception so that the hotel can advertise a lower rate, and then charge more. If the charge is required, it should be part of the room rate.

I don’t mind paying for parking at city locations where space is scarce. There is no reason that if I am not driving a car I should be subsidizing a guest who does need an expensive car parking space. What does irritate is if a hotel is in a suburban or country location where free parking is common, but they work with the local authority to ban street parking and then charge guests $25-30 to park there. I nominate the Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay, near San Francisco for extortion in this manner. The hotel is not accessible without a car. The road leading to it could easily offer street parking, and in fact, I have seen the valets use this street to park cars when at capacity, but overnight parking is prohibited without a permit, and they charge guests $30 to park.

By: Nellie

Nellie — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 16:39:19 +0000

Can’t agree more! I once stayed at an upscale resort that charged $30 PER DAY for internet acess! I had to head out to the nearby McDonalds to logon. There is no doubt that I’m never going back to that resort. There are many more hostels and guesthouses that tend to have much faster internet access with no extra charge. Give me a cheap hostel room with great service, anytime!

By: Andy Jarosz

Andy Jarosz — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:34:05 +0000

Super 8 are great. Cheap, clean and perfect if you just want to check in after 9pm and be out at sunrise. Some of them even have a pool! And best of all, from my limited experience of maybe five or six motels the staff treat you like a human being.
€20 is about the going rate Anil. Like you say, it’s crazy. They would generate a much better public perception if they just absorbed the wi-fi costs into their room rates (it really wouldn’t be much)

By: Anil

Anil — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:43:13 +0000

I was recently in Dublin where one of the hotels I attended a conference at was charging 20 Euro for Internet per day. My hostel room was 9 Euro and that included wi-fi! Fees like that drive me insane.

By: John

John — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 03:28:32 +0000

Personally our family is a Super 8 fan. Cheap, Free Wifi, and breakfast every morning. For work sometimes I have to go to a higher class hotel, but it isn’t as good as Super 8.

By: Andy Jarosz

Andy Jarosz — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:42:45 +0000

Hi Don, Thanks for stopping by and posting. Yes, you make a great point. If your business model revolves around guests who are on expenses and so don’t care about the charges, you can pretty much print your own cash. Now that we are back in the real world where companies are actually checking how their costs are racking up on travel costs, these hotels are being exposed. Let’s hope they get the message, and if TripAdvisor helps to force them into reality then all power to it.

By: Don Nadeau

Don Nadeau — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:02:35 +0000

Twenty-five dollars a day for parking? Consider yourselves lucky! This easily runs over $40 in central business districts.

As long as these 4-star type hotels were catering to the expense account crowd, as well as to the leisure luxe rich, these types of fees were probably not a big issue. Now, that these hotels are opening their doors to the rest of us by deep discounting due to cash flow problems in this economy, unseemly fees have become a big issue in guest satisfaction.

If they don’t want lower TripAdvisor ratings than the by-the-hour motel down the road, deluxe hotels should address the fee problem.