No one likes random extra fees with different names – resort fees, destination fees, amenities fees or city fees, just to mention a few – that are included in the price of a hotel room every day. night.
Some don’t like it enough to file a lawsuit against the world’s largest hotel company.
Hotel guests filed a lawsuit against Marriott International Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court over what they allege the nightly surcharge on the room rate violates California’s consumer protection and unfair competition laws. Charges are labeled as “Hotel Employee Protection Ordinance Cost Surcharge” on guest bills and range from $10 to $14 per night, depending on the hotel.
Those allegations first emerged in response to an executive order signed last year by then-Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. That measure requires hotels in Los Angeles to provide employees with security devices such as panic buttons to better protect themselves against the risk of sexual assault. The measure also requires larger hotels to pay more for housekeepers who clean above a certain threshold during shifts.
But the lawsuit asserts that the surcharge – billed to cover costs related to the employee protection measure – is much higher than the hotel owner actually has to pay.
“For example, the Los Angeles Airport Marriott is a 1,004-room hotel that typically has an average occupancy rate above 80%. However, even when occupancy is only 80% (803 occupied rooms per night), the hotel still earns over $10,000 per night from guests by charging [Hotel Worker Protection Ordinance] Fees — over $3,600,000 annually at that single hotel,” the lawsuit states. “The HWPO fee is nothing more than a ‘junk fee’ under the guise of ‘protecting workers,’ benefiting Marriott directly at the expense of their customers.”
A Marriott representative declined to comment when contacted by TPG.
Multiple Marriott properties are featured in the lawsuit: Los Angeles Airport Marriott, Courtyard by Marriott Los Angeles LAX/Century Boulevard, Residence Inn by Marriott Los Angeles LAX/Century Boulevard, and Four Points by Sheraton Los Angeles International Airport Angeles.
While most of the hotels accused of charging are located near Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), the lawsuit also names the Beverly Hills Marriott hotel.
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Tired fee
The lawsuit comes amid an anti-fee movement that is spreading across the tourism sector. US President Joe Biden earlier this year even targeted resort fees in his State of the Union speech amid efforts to eliminate hidden fees, common in the travel industry, as part of his Garbage Fee Prevention Act.
“We’re going to ban unexpected resort fees that hotels charge you,” Biden said in the speech. “These fees can cost you up to $90 a night at hotels that aren’t even resorts.”
Marriott has settled with the Pennsylvania attorney general a lawsuit targeting its resort toll practices, and the company now maintains that position. hotels include the fee as part of the originally advertised nightly rate.
Earlier this year, separate lawsuits in Texas were brought against Hyatt And Hilton Hotel about their respective resort fee practices.
While Marriott is once again in the legal hot seat over surcharges added to room rates, the company’s CEO, Anthony Capuano, earlier this year praised the hotel brand’s ability to lead the way. in the inclusion of resort fees in the nightly room rate.
Fees won’t go away, but better transparency could be the ultimate goal of the entire industry.
“It’s not that those things are hidden somehow. We’re simply clarifying and enhancing that transparency,” Capuano said on the company’s first-quarter earnings call. “I will leave it to the state [attorneys general] around the rest of the country for the rest of the industry. But I am pleased that we will lead the industry in transparency in disclosing information to our guests.”
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