Nickelodeon hotel now has a higher daily resort fee- No thanks!

[AntFarm]

We were going to surprise the kids with a stay at Nickelodeon resort for our spring trip but forget it now - saw that they raised their already ridiculous $25 plus tax daily resort fee to $28 plus tax per day. What gives??
My kids have loved Nickelodeon shows and characters for years, but this is a place we will probably never stay at. Are any meals or even a complimentary cold continental breakfast included in their rates? Nope. Are any of the extra activities (kids spa, arcade, 4D movies) included in their rates? Nope. Do all the rooms have Nickelodeon theming? Nope. Have the rooms or property been refurbished recently? Nope. So all that money for some orange waterslides and a couple character meet and greets here and there? No thanks. This place has the potential to be really great with Nickelodeon's name and be a big part of Orlando's tourism market, so sad.

 

[JKMJ441724]

I had a $6.77 resort-fee charge at Holdiay Inn Express Maingate for a one night stay in October. I had assumed that was a tax imposed by the State of Florida.

Is this resort fee just another way for the hotel to make money while making it seem like their "prices" are cheaper than they actually are?????

 

[Ed J]

The Nick is a fav for the kids in our family, in fact I have never heard of a kid saying the place sucked. Adults yes, kids no.

I would never stay more than 2 nights there, so for an extra $60 it's worth it IMO.

I didn't pay the bill on our most resent trip, but if I recall correctly the SWAN hit us for 14 or 19 a day + somewhere around 20 a day if you parked there. It's just not the Nick doing this.

 

[Lewisc]

Is this resort fee just another way for the hotel to make money while making it seem like their "prices" are cheaper than they actually are?????

Yep. Also avoid paying commission

 

[4kids4karen]

Is this resort fee just another way for the hotel to make money while making it seem like their "prices" are cheaper than they actually are?????

Every hotel I have ever stayed at in Orlando has resort fees and parking fees in addition to the room price. I would say yes, it is a way to make the price seem cheaper. Knowing this, when I make a reservation (always by phone, never online) I always ask what the resort fee and parking fee are. I never reserve online as I get better quotes by calling (military or FL resident discounts, etc.).

 

[4kids4karen]

At Nick Hotel, there are also additional fees for poolside rooms and certain theme rooms (Spongebob cost more as well as another character I can't recall). Poolside use to be $10 more. I refuse to pay more for the louder side of the hotel. LOL. If they insist on putting me on that side because of no availability on the parking lot side, I would negotiate not to pay the additional fee. I haven't stayed at Nick Hotel in about 3 years.

 

[Lewisc]

Every hotel I have ever stayed at in Orlando has resort fees and parking fees in addition to the room price. I would say yes, it is a way to make the price seem cheaper. Knowing this, when I make a reservation (always by phone, never online) I always ask what the resort fee and parking fee are. I never reserve online as I get better quotes by calling (military or FL resident discounts, etc.).

None of the Disney hotels, currently, charge resort fees. Maybe five years ago almost no hotels in Orlando charged resort fees. There are still some hotels which don't charge resort fees but it seems like most do.

 

[AntFarm]

I am aware that many hotels/resorts in popular tourist cities such as Orlando charge resort fees, and I don't have a problem with those fees when they are justifiable as most aren't more than $5-$10 a day on average. But $30 a day is just beyond ridiculous to me, especially when at the Nickelodeon hotel you have to pay extra for most of the activities, a complimentary/continental breakfast isn't offered, the hotel rooms and property haven't been refurbished in quite some time, and you have to pay extra for a themed room. Isn't being immersed in theming one of the the major points of staying at the Nickelodeon hotel? Raising an already high resort fee when there isn't just cause is a big turn off to me and really demonstrates that they aren't customer oriented and as family friendly as many would think.

 

[Upatnoon]

We were going to surprise the kids with a stay at Nickelodeon resort for our spring trip but forget it now - saw that they raised their already ridiculous $25 plus tax daily resort fee to $28 plus tax per day. What gives??
My kids have loved Nickelodeon shows and characters for years, but this is a place we will probably never stay at. Are any meals or even a complimentary cold continental breakfast included in their rates? Nope. Are any of the extra activities (kids spa, arcade, 4D movies) included in their rates? Nope. Do all the rooms have Nickelodeon theming? Nope. Have the rooms or property been refurbished recently? Nope. So all that money for some orange waterslides and a couple character meet and greets here and there? No thanks. This place has the potential to be really great with Nickelodeon's name and be a big part of Orlando's tourism market, so sad.

You can thank the Internet for the explosion in resort fees. Since people can now quickly sort for the lowest-priced hotel rooms, hotels have "resorted" to such fees as a backdoor way to raise prices -- without getting pushed lower and lower on the list people are looking at when searching hotel rates on the Internet.

Disney hotels don't really have to worry about this as much, because they are basically competing against other Disney hotels. They just have to worry about keeping people "aspiring" to a higher level of resort. What Disney has done to raise prices on the sly is create lots of new more-expensive categories for rooms. "preferred" value rooms and "garden view" rooms, etc.

The important thing is that we know to look for these resort fees before we book, so we can add them to the price and make sure we are happy with the deal.

 

[4kids4karen]

None of the Disney hotels, currently, charge resort fees. Maybe five years ago almost no hotels in Orlando charged resort fees. There are still some hotels which don't charge resort fees but it seems like most do.

I wasn't referring to on-property hotels since this is the off-site forum. I do not stay on-property except for Fort Wilderness. I have been staying in off-site hotels in Orlando since 2003 and have always been aware of resort fees and parking fees.

 

[Lewisc]

I wasn't referring to on-property hotels since this is the off-site forum. I do not stay on-property except for Fort Wilderness. I have been staying in off-site hotels in Orlando since 2003 and have always been aware of resort fees and parking fees.

I stayed at the Sheraton Safari (near DTD) 2 years ago. No resort fee and no fee for parking. My memory is in 2003 resort fees were only charged by "real" resorts (Universal hotels, Gaylord Palms....) Last few years many non-resort hotels added resort fees.

People need to add parking fee, resort fee and maybe even ground transportation when comparing an offsite hotel with an Disney hotel.