These taxes are very common. In a lot of cases, they are pledged as revenues to support a bond financing. In my misspent youth, I worked on the bond financing for the then new Texas Rangers stadium. There was a county wide special hotel tax created which paid the debt service on the bonds. Much easier for your local government to stick visitors with the bill as opposed to convincing voters to say yes to increased taxes through a bond referendum.
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I should have added to my story that the location of his pregnant wife changed based on what state he was panhandling in. THAT’s what made me think he was running a scam–kept his “wife” in-state no matter where he was operating.
Yes, @oldfort. They are definitely back in HI!. Sometimes it’s because there are privately owned condos that are let through vrbo or airbnb and the resort finds this an easier way to get the fees for usage of their common areas. Seems reasonable enough, but I wonder if owners pay these fees when they use their own units. I would have thought HOA fees would cover that, but I don’t know. (And I have had fleeting thoughts of being a homeowner in such a spot. Does anyone knpw?)
What I hate is when valet parking is mandatory and expensive at a resort that can only be reached by car. That just feels like bad planning!
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We have a restaurant in town that was shut down due to management shorting employees of credit card tips (it was investigated), my 3 daughters have worked at restaurants in various positions and prefer cash tips.
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I won’t give money but we put food bags together and always have some in the car. They’re just large lunch bags that we fill with shelf stable food and drinks and sometimes a McDonalds or DD gift card. In winter we add warm socks or gloves.
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the thing is, people have proven they will pay these upcharged amounts, so why would they bring them down?
that’s another thing I ran into tipping on lately! a cookie somehere! And, a pretzel at auntie anne’s!
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I ordered same day delivery from Bed Bath in late November and was invited to tip my dasher. I didn’t realize what a dasher was until husband said he thought they used Door Dash for deliveries. Normally I wouldn’t tip for store delivery but I got a great price so threw in a few dollars for the driver.
I think that tipping demands have gotten out of control. When I’m picking up take out from a restaurant, I don’t tip. If I was going to tip, I’d sit down in the restaurant and eat there.
I hate hotels that charge a ‘resort fee.’ AND insane parking fees. Just list your nightly rate as being higher because nobody has the choice to opt OUT of the resort fee…it’s a mandatory add-on. It’s stupid.
I absolutely refuse to stay at a VRBO or AirBNB. I hate all of the add-on fees. Hate how you’re expected to take out the trash, do the laundry, and clean the house/townhouse/whatever ON TOP OF PAY A CLEANING FEE! Forget it. I’d rather stay in a hotel because I don’t have to wash and dry the sheets & towels before I check out.
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Lots of hotels in San Francisco charge resort fees, although they won’t necessarily use that term. They’ll be called “urban fees” or something like that. I’m even seeing these types of extra fees at some Tokyo hotels now,.
And Florida (East and West coasts) and we just paid one in Penscaola Beach…
They’re definitely expanding and they are weak!!! Just put it in the dang rate.
FWIW, we’ve stayed in them a lot on our longer trips because they are far less expensive for a month or so - and we’ve never once had to do more than set the trash outside. I guess it’s mainly a matter of looking at what’s expected, but if I can stay at a place for 3-6K for a month vs 10K for a month and have cooking facilities + more bedrooms/bathrooms, etc, we consider it a nice bargain.
For a night or two we never pick them because they aren’t less expensive at that rate.
One other plus is one can get AirBnBs where there are no hotels - such as happens when traveling to more rural destinations with good hiking or kayaking or something.
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Tips come up on every card reader. I just ignore it. No one’s called me a cheapskate yet. I’ll tip if I go out and eat at a restaurant.
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Sometimes an employee will seem embarrassed by the tip option and tell me to feel free to ignore it.
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Yeah, I think it is part of a lot of base software that retailers have adopted to tablets in lieu of the old cash registers. I ignore the tip line or put $0 for any counter service place. I may leave a buck to $5 in cash in places where they bring the food to me and/or bus the table – similar to what I would do at buffet type places when I went there pre-Covid.
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The “resort” fees, and the like aren’t able to be included in the rate because as noted above, most (I’d say all, but that’s probably not true), are being charged to offset various bonds, and taxes, and need to be noted on receipts as a separate line item for legal accounting.
It feels nuts, but that’s the reason.
I hate all “hidden” (even those in plain sight) charges.
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Renting a place is a nice option if there are going to be a lot of us—5 people are better with 2 bathrooms than just one. we did our 1st condo and vrbo rentals when S’s fiancée was visiting. It was nice to have a bit more space and hotel rates were crazy expensive so we saved over having 2 hotel rooms. I didn’t leave any tips as there was already a cleaning fee included as well as other fees and taxes. It was not cheap but as we had a nice stay, worth it for us.
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Yes, when we travel as a family of 3 (adults), we generally find that a 2BR condo is a better alternative to 2 hotel rooms on almost every front from cost to common space to amenities. Having said that, a 1BR condo tends to be more expensive than one nice hotel room.
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I stayed in a hotel (with a 17% tax added) and no maid service to speak of. I think they came in on day 3 and emptied the ONE trash can in the room. Do you know how strange it is not to have a trash can in the bathroom? No new towels, no wash cloths at all.
I did notice some other rooms put their trash cans in the hall some mornings, but they weren’t always emptied.
There was no tip left. This was a Marriott. Not impressed. There wasn’t a resort fee, but the pool was tiny, full of kids, no pool towels left. I stayed about 2 minutes.
Sometimes at AirB&Bs, you have to take the trash out (not on the porch) because of animals. We stayed in one for just 3 nights and it was on a beach island, so sort of rural yet many houses in view. One night at 6 pm I heard howling and a commotion between domestic dogs and I think coyotes, right at the end of the driveway. There were lots of trash cans for recycling and trash, and we just had to put the trash into the bins and the caretaker took them to the road. But they had lids to put down tight because of the animals.
It was a great house to rent. The owner is a tie-dye artist, and there were many 6’ hangings in the house (bath curtains, framed stuff too). Really fun to see and pick our favorites. We didn’t have to do any cleaning except throw out food and take out the trash. But it was expensive.
Door Dashers and other delivery services pay terrible base wages. I tip generously especially grocery shoppers, because I really appreciate the service they did/do for me during Covid.
Restaurants are also in that category, again, especially during Covid. Even if you aren’t dining in, the staff inside is most likely overworked and short handed. There was a post on my town’s FB page this week giving kudos to the lone restaurant employee who was both serving and cooking and everything else at one local restaurant.
My pet peeve is having hotel prices increase after doing more than one search. That’s unconscionable.
Also recently, I was making travel plans on a third party discount website that had worked well for us a few months ago. This current trip is to Costa Rica. The tour prices include airfare and hotels, but you choose and add on everything else like transfers and excursions. I was working on setting up transfers and the price seemed reasonable, then when I was about to click to add, I noticed that the price listed was for a Spanish driver and the English option was X3 at 300$ for a short trip to the hotel. I was so mad knowing that this was going to be the case for every add on, that I exited the website, did some research, and opted for a highly rated but much more expensive travel service that arranges custom trips and will work with you until you’re happy with the hotels, excursions, and the price ( Kimkim). Having to make our own air reservations was the only downside except for the price, which may have ended up the same anyway after all the hidden fees with the first company. Kimkim just sends you your final itinerary telling you where and when you’ll be picked up and by who, and where you’ll be going and what you’ll doing on each day (you do tell them what types of things you enjoy at the initial stages). Sometimes you get what you pay for and since this is a special retirement trip for my husband, we were willing to pay.
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