Marriott CEO responds to resort fee lawsuit
Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson has delivered a robust defense of its resort fee policy and says he doesn’t expect it to go away.
Sorenson likened it to airline baggage fees.
"You’ve got resort fees in hotels, baggage fees in airlines. None of us as consumers necessarily love it. What we’ve tried to do is be very transparent with disclosure," Sorenson told LinkedIn in an interview.
A lawsuit was filed in Washington, D.C takes issue with this, stating it is not transparent, as the fees only become apparent to customers when the checkout total lists taxes and fees.’
This gives the impression that resorts fees are collected by a government or municipal authority.
"I don’t think the fees are going away. We do want to make sure that we’re continuing to deliver value for them, and you can only do that in some markets, and in some hotels. So I don’t anticipate we will end up with these fees in every hotel, and in markets where there is no extra features for guests," Sorenson added.
"Our approach generally, for each hotel, is to have a package of things included at each hotel that is a multiple of the cost of the fee. I think a lot of folks look at that and say philosophically, ‘Yeah, I can understand it.’"
DC attorney general Karl Racine claims guests are being ‘misled into believing a Marriott hotel room is cheaper than it actually is.’
"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," the lawsuit stated.
While Washington DC is targeting Marriott specifically other attorneys general are weighing up similar legal action against other hotel chains.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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