I recently traveled to San Antonio to assist with the operation of the United States finals to determine who would advance to the World Golfers Championship in South Africa. We did it at the Hyatt Hill Country Resort. With 15+ hours a day spent working on the event, it did not leave me much time for anything else except to enjoy some nice meals. What bothered me was that the resort added a daily resort fee of $22 to cover internet, local phone calls, bike rental, golf bag storage and use of the golf practice facility, all things that I did not have time to use. I thought this should have been included in the rate for the room even for the ones using it
When my wife and I spent a weekend at the Gaylord in Grapevine to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary, we were hit with a similar resort fee that also covered parking. I didn’t like it then either, but really had no other choice. We did extra night included in the package that helped, but it’s something we couldn’t do except for special occasions.
The airlines started this fad by charging extra for baggage plus fuel surcharges. The result is that more travelers—include me in this umber–bring more items on to store on the plane, causing some problems, especially if you are among the last to get on. The best practice is to store caery-on items above your own row, instead of in the first open bin you see. Just make the baggage part of the price for the ticket. Some savvy travelers even ship their bags via Fed Ex. Planning for a trip to Hawaii, my wife and I were going to put all our clothes in two smaller carry on bags and pay extra for my golf clubs—I just had to have my own clubs didn’t I. After seeing time for only one round on a recent trip to Florida, I opted to rent clubs instead of hauling mine, but I was shocked at the $60 price. I’m sure more travelers might opt for golf if the resorts made this fee a little more reasonable. Southwest Airlines doesn’t charge extra for bags, but having to make those extra stops because of the Wright Amendment bothers me even more, adding hours to the time it would take to get where you are going.
Rental car companies, especially the ones I checked with in Hawaii, add all kinds of fees, too. Discounts on the Costco card didn’t amount to much savings either.
I’ve heard that some of the top tour companies try to solve this problem of extra fees by including everything into all-inclusive packages and then surprise their clients with extras they were not expecting like a room upgrade. Now, that’s the way it should be done
Even in the charity golf events that I play in are following the game of additional fees. You pay the entry fee and then they want you to pay extra for mulligans, raffle tickets, etc. Of course, it’s for a good cause and I usually do it, but my choice would be to keep it simple and include all that in the entry fee. It would actually save on the number of volunteers needed.
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