Feeling over fee-ed! Looking for off site hotel with no extra fees

[Smittolis]

2nd vote for keeping tabs on Mousesavers, they have offers that waive the resort fee all the time so worth taking a look. Springhill suites or Townsuites at Flamingo crossing is a great location if you have a car. No parking fees or resort fees, good pricing and a good standard. Accessibility to all parks is also good. Defo worth a look. I have a video of the rooms on the townsuites thread.

 

[momof2n2]

Have you considered an AirBnB?

 

[paults]

we stayed a Sheraton Vistana resort before we got DVC and would gladly go back when we sell DVC.

 

[HopperFan]

I try to avoid the fees unless even with the fee I am still under/at budget for the trip .... or it's a no choice situation (downtown area).

I'm a Hilton Honors and so I gravitate to them ... they have been very good about keeping the fees off the bill. I was surprised I just stayed at Homewood Suites, walking distance to the Convention Center on International - no fees. By Disney there are multiple Hamptons, a Homewood and more without fees. They are there you just have to decide what area you want to stay in, what level hotel and how much you want to pay.

Resort fee? What the heck is that? I've heard of the parking fees, which I find completely ridiculous. But resort fee? Isn't that what you pay them for, to stay there?

As explained it's a way to raise rates without being obvious. They will tell you they cover your wifi (most used to charge for that) and then things that were free or fee items ... most of which we didn't use. Some of the hotels that added water park type pool areas justify it with those.

This is from the Hilton at Disney Springs.

Daily Resort Charge will be added to the room rate and includes: Guest internet access; Disney shuttle; 2-16 oz Starbucks coffees; 2-16 oz bottles of water; DVDNow rentals; 10% off in gift shop with $30 buy; $5 off tickets sold at concierge desk; local/toll-free/credit card calls.

Here the Hilton Bonnet Creek explains their hefty fee ..

https://www.hiltonbonnetcreek.com/faqs

 

[robinb]

I try to avoid the fees unless even with the fee I am still under/at budget for the trip .... or it's a no choice situation (downtown area).

I'm a Hilton Honors and so I gravitate to them ... they have been very good about keeping the fees off the bill. I was surprised I just stayed at Homewood Suites, walking distance to the Convention Center on International - no fees. By Disney there are multiple Hamptons, a Homewood and more without fees. They are there you just have to decide what area you want to stay in, what level hotel and how much you want to pay.



As explained it's a way to raise rates without being obvious. They will tell you they cover your wifi (most used to charge for that) and then things that were free or fee items ... most of which we didn't use. Some of the hotels that added water park type pool areas justify it with those.

This is from the Hilton at Disney Springs.

Daily Resort Charge will be added to the room rate and includes: Guest internet access; Disney shuttle; 2-16 oz Starbucks coffees; 2-16 oz bottles of water; DVDNow rentals; 10% off in gift shop with $30 buy; $5 off tickets sold at concierge desk; local/toll-free/credit card calls.

Here the Hilton Bonnet Creek explains their hefty fee ..

https://www.hiltonbonnetcreek.com/faqs

... and Hilton Bonnet Creek treats their Diamond guests like crap. We stayed their once, never again.

I am staying at the Wyndham Bonnet Creek in a 2-BR (no resort fees, free parking) for our next trip for about $20 more per night than the Hampton Inn. We do have the Hampton Inn Clearwater reserved for a couple of beach days after but they don't have a resort fee even there on the beach (the do have a parking fee, though).

 

[sethschroeder]

Fees don't equate to desirability nor security in a hotel not by a long shot.

Except if no one wanted to pay the fees they would remove it and eat the cost. It's why as an example you will find compd parking in the city at less "desirable" hotels especially during not peak times.

There was also no comment from the poster about safety. Someone not wanting to stay at hotels around Disney as an example (so the hotel has to waive fees) could equate to no shuttle, further commute to park, outdated accommodations, no actual resort amenities, or many other things.

 

[sethschroeder]

I try to avoid the fees unless even with the fee I am still under/at budget for the trip .... or it's a no choice situation (downtown area).

Exactly who cares what fees they charge as long as your total is less. It's like shopping on Amazon I will pay $10 shipping if the item is $11 less than the free shipping item.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Except if no one wanted to pay the fees they would remove it and eat the cost. It's why as an example you will find compd parking in the city at less "desirable" hotels especially during not peak times.

There was also no comment from the poster about safety. Someone not wanting to stay at hotels around Disney as an example (so the hotel has to waive fees) could equate to no shuttle, further commute to park, outdated accommodations, no actual resort amenities, or many other things.

The poster said "The ones that don’t have fees may be the ones nobody wants to stay at..." pretty sure we can all understand what that implies.

I don't even care to comment about your other part of your comment it's way off base anyways

 

[wilbret]

I hate fees, mainly because it's the hotel/resort's way to scam into search results. We go to the beach every year with family, and our little family group typically goes 2-3 days early so it's just us. We stay at a resort that we love, but this year it is still closed from the hurricane. Looked at some other last minute options and one place had rooms as low as $100, but check this out. (this is real, actual amount before I canceled out...)

Avg nightly rate $125.13
Taxes and fees per night $16.42
Cleaning fee: $192.31
Destination fee: $56.80
Resort fee: $6.78
Utility fee: $50.90
Total: $589.89 !!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOL, cleaning fee is as much as the room!

Just be honest and build it into the rate. Don't advertise $125/night for a room if it's really $230/night.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I hate fees, mainly because it's the hotel/resort's way to scam into search results. We go to the beach every year with family, and our little family group typically goes 2-3 days early so it's just us. We stay at a resort that we love, but this year it is still closed from the hurricane. Looked at some other last minute options and one place had rooms as low as $100, but check this out. (this is real, actual amount before I canceled out...)

Avg nightly rate $125.13
Taxes and fees per night $16.42
Cleaning fee: $192.31
Destination fee: $56.80
Resort fee: $6.78
Utility fee: $50.90
Total: $589.89 !!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOL, cleaning fee is as much as the room!

Just be honest and build it into the rate. Don't advertise $125/night for a room if it's really $230/night.

Those fees makes me think this is a for rent by owner style place/vacation rental or a timeshare place. I have different expectations when it comes to those personally.

A normal hotel mostly you're going to get parking fee and/or resort fee. Is the place you're talking about just a regular hotel like a Hilton-style place or something different?

 

[wilbret]

Those fees makes me think this is a for rent by owner style place/vacation rental or a timeshare place. I have different expectations when it comes to those personally.

A normal hotel mostly you're going to get parking fee and/or resort fee. Is the place you're talking about just a regular hotel like a Hilton-style place or something different?

The type of resort/hotel is inconsequential. The fact that they advertise $125/night (for this room, they had lower prices on others), but knowingly have all these fees is deceptive. You see the same thing in Orlando. $30 resort fee. $15 parking fee. And so on. Just include all the fees you can't elect out of in the price, is all I'm saying...

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

The type of resort/hotel is inconsequential. The fact that they advertise $125/night (for this room, they had lower prices on others), but knowingly have all these fees is deceptive. You see the same thing in Orlando. $30 resort fee. $15 parking fee. And so on. Just include all the fees you can't elect out of in the price, is all I'm saying...

Well you did seem to call out specific fees which is why I responded that way.

The type of place, to me, does matter because different fees comes with different types of places. And how those fees come out tend to be different. Certainly you don't have to agree with me there. I was trying to get more information especially since you specifically called out the cleaning fee.

Here's an example from my for rent by owner place we got in Hawaii in 2016--booked through Trip Advisor's FlipKey:

Base rate	$871.50
Add...	$25.00
Cleaning Fee	$125.00
Price for 7 nights	$1,021.50
Refundable DepositTripAdvisor will automatically refund the account used to pay 10 days after check-out with owner approval." style="margin-left: 5px; font-weight: normal; color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">	$125.00
Total	$1,146.50

It didn't bother us that the base rate was listed as it was. The $25 I believe was FlipKey's booking charge I *think*--it's been a few years. The cleaning fee was a flat rate charged no matter how many nights you stayed. Also the owner charged a Refundable deposit as you can see which is also a flat rate not based on number of nights staying. All of these would be kinda hard to just include in the nightly average room rate. No matter what there would have been a cleaning fee separated out because for this owner it was a flat rate no matter how many nights and a booking fee separated out. But it was easy to see the itemization of the charges.

Resort fees are silly IMO so yeah I get you there but parking fees are something that not everyone will be charged.

On a more larger note at the moment the hotel industry in the U.S. is not regulated like the airline industry became with the fees and taxes being required to be included in the price before getting too far in the process. But perhaps one day it may get there.

 

[disneysteve]

OP, have you considered a vacation rental? They typically have no parking fee, no resort fee. There might be a small cleaning fee unless you're staying at least a week. And you get far more accommodation-wise than you do with a hotel. For less than the cost of many hotel rooms, you can get a 3-bedroom house with a private screened-in pool, or for even less, a condo or town house.

We are renting a 4-bedroom pool house next month. Total cost with all taxes and fees is $154/night. We've rented 3-bedroom houses for under $90/night (no pool).

 

[java]

Just a Priceline express. Tip . If you search Orlando (Bonnet Creek area) pick 3- 3.5 Star) check to see if there are “added resort fees” when you click on rate. If not chances are it’s a Disney hotel. I needed 2 nights one at the beginning and one at the end. Got ASM for first night $95. And got Coronado(3.5) for $130 for last night. That’s where we are staying for the rest of our trip at around $177 a night. So I’m a new believer in Priceline express.

 

[wilbret]

Just a Priceline express. Tip . If you search Orlando (Bonnet Creek area) pick 3- 3.5 Star) check to see if there are “added resort fees” when you click on rate. If not chances are it’s a Disney hotel. I needed 2 nights one at the beginning and one at the end. Got ASM for first night $95. And got Coronado(3.5) for $130 for last night. That’s where we are staying for the rest of our trip at around $177 a night. So I’m a new believer in Priceline express.

There are ways to decode the system to know exactly what you are getting... plus there are sites where you can copy and paste the description to reveal the hotel. Happy price-lining!