While You Slept, Another Travel Fee Was Born!

If you have an interest in going deep under cover and becoming incredibly stealth our advice is to become a travel fee. These bad boys get dreamed up by someone who wants to make their airline, hotel chain or even campground a few more bucks. But c’mon already!

Here’s the deal. Christopher Elliott, co-founder of the advocacy travel group Travelers United recently write in the Washington Post that “new fees and restrictions tend to have one thing in common: They are introduced without fanfare and easily overlooked.”

He points to airlines increasing baggage fees to $30 on domestic flights and up to $60 on international flights. But there’s more. Much more.

Hotels have increased their mandatory resort fees. With more increases expected soon. Cruise lines are charging passengers between $8 and $29 for signature attractions.

And some places have found new revenue streams. Like campgrounds “implementing fees for additional people at the campsite. Operators charge $5 per day per person for more than two people, which can add up to more than $100 per week for a family of five.”

The days of 24-hour cancellations have been moved out to 48 and even 72 hours. Ouch!

As Elliott writes, “Travel policies started becoming more restrictive a decade ago when airlines were delighted to discover their passengers would pay extra for their first checked bag. The enthusiasm was infectious, leaving no part of the travel industry untouched.”

According to ABC News in July, the Washington D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine filed a lawsuit against hotel giant Marriott “for allegedly reaping ‘hundreds of millions of dollars’ using an unlawful practice called ‘drip pricing’ — in which fees are added to an advertised price.” Racine’s office is quoted as saying, “This is a straight-forward price deception case. For at least the last decade, Marriott has used an unlawful trade practice called ‘drip pricing’ in advertising its hotel rooms whereby Marriott initially hides a portion of a hotel room’s daily rate from consumers.”

Looking for help? This is where we tell you how NHS Global Events has a philosophy of treating clients the way we like to be treated. We promise transparency and we don’t let new travel fees fly under the radar. We refuse to allow our customers to learn about new charges the hard way. When they appear on a bill. And we fight to eliminate them for you.