Parking Fees, Resort fees and other hidden fees , getting larger and harder to find

[Nomadsz]

HI
I have been travelling to Orlando/ Kissimmee are since 1994 normally staying every other year and stayed all over from Hotels on I-drive and the 192 to houses near Champions Gate. However, in all this time I have never been charged a resort fee or parking charges.
I have been looking around bonnet creek and nearby hotels and suite properties near WDW. 3 to 4star.
However, it seems that all properties in and around WDW are now charging resort fees, parking fees and even cleaning fees for some of the villa and suite style accommodation. When did a nightly room charge and state taxes become not enough for these establishments? For example, the Hilton Bonnet Creek for a parking and resort fee adds up to $74 per night. that's another $1036+ sales tax for a 14-night stay for one room and for a family with two rooms $1666+sales tax . But this took some investigation. Perhaps we can start a listing those hotels that are not charging additional fees and name and shame the money grabbers. that are adding up to another 80% to the daily cost for a room with these fees.

 

[disneysteve]

I can understand parking fees since not all guests have a car, but resort fees are straight out deceptive marketing to make the room rate appear cheaper. They aren't optional and every guest has to pay them. Just include it in the room rate. And don't try and tell me that the resort fee includes "free" Wifi or "free" breakfast. It ain't free if you're charging me for it.

We always stay at rental properties in the Disney area so no parking fee, no resort fee. There is sometimes a cleaning fee. I'm fine with that and some owners will waive it for longer stays. Plus the nightly rate is so low that it's well worth it. So if you want to avoid all the fees the hotels are tacking on, consider renting a condo, town house, or pool home.

 

[bankr63]

Honestly, I'd lay most of the blame for this on the Internet. The race to the bottom is mostly to blame on sites that order hotel offerings by the price per night. Very, very few people order those lists from most to least expensive. So to be at or near the 'top' you have to be at the bottom price wise. Offloading costs onto a 'fee' is one way to do this. Now the sites could help by actually showing the total cost including all fees for a hotel stay. Canada already does this for air travel (sites must legally show the entire cost of the ticket) - not sure if the US has the same rule. Applying that to hotel travel would take care of the issue pretty quickly.

Another contributing factor is all of these loyalty programs that reward patrons with 'free' nights. Generally the resort fee and taxes are not included in 'free', so again offloading costs onto resort fees keeps the income flowing in.

A savvy traveler has to be aware of this and always make sure they are comparing apples to apples and not to oranges.

I will add that the Sheraton Vistana Resorts in the area have no resort or parking fees. But looking at hotels.com, you have to scroll past an insane number of other properties (many with resort fees, some probably more expensive per night) to find it.

 

[disneysteve]

Another contributing factor is all of these loyalty programs that reward patrons with 'free' nights. Generally the resort fee and taxes are not included in 'free', so again offloading costs onto resort fees keeps the income flowing in.

This is not true. When I redeem a rewards night I pay absolutely nothing. No taxes. No resort fee. Parking is the only thing not included if the hotel charges for that.

 

[Bete]

There are still resorts without all these fees. I will say they are mostly located in the Kissimee area.

 

[bankr63]

This is not true. When I redeem a rewards night I pay absolutely nothing. No taxes. No resort fee. Parking is the only thing not included if the hotel charges for that.

Which program? There are many!

 

[disneysteve]

Which program? There are many!

Marriott for one. Pretty sure Hilton, IHG, and the others I belong to are all the same way.

 

[bankr63]

Good to know. I've had fees with IHG in the past, but don't do a lot of reward nights anymore (no business travel anymore), I get more with Hotels.com just for booking rewards. Went to TPG to see if I could find out more about redemption policies for the programs, but coming up empty so far, although next week's beginner guide post should be getting into that area.

 

[chartle]

Ok I haven't been to WDW in coming up on 6 years and have no trips planned, but when the parking/resort what ever they call it fee came in I was wondering if off site properties would follow suit.

So I pulled up the place we have stayed at for the past 3 trips, Buena Vista Suites, and yes they now have a 16.95+tax nightly fee. Not having one was one of their selling points but i guess they now have free standard wifi (no streaming) and they have a shuttle service. Not sure if the shuttle service was free before but based on reading posts over the years I would never use it.

I guess the only saving grace is that we now have an RV so I would assume our next trip is dragging it down to Fort Wilderness where while I can't get my head around paying $100 for campsite, I don't have to pay the parking fee. yea

 

[mckennarose]

These are the most recent places we've stayed at in the past few years:
Sheraton Vistana Resort (not Village); no resort fee, no parking fee
Mariott Sabal Palms: no resort fee, no parking fee, no extra fee to use the water slides or World Center Pool.
Mystic Dunes Resort: resort fee of $24.95 plus tax per night. They used to charge for internet, but I think they put all the extra charges into the one nightly charge. We only stayed here once about 5 years ago. They have a HARD sales pitch to buy in.

 

[Biggen]

The Wyndham Bonnet Creek (condo/timeshare) does not charge a resort or parking fee.

 

[georgina]

I often stay at the Springhill Suites Flamingo Crossing which has no parking or resort fees (for now at least).

I recently spent 6 nights at Grande Villas by Diamond which I booked on Orbitz. No parking fee, and I knew there was a resort fee, but Orbitz had the amount wrong. Still was a good deal and conveniently located.

 

[Vacations66]

Which program? There are many!

Lol. I have Best Western but no luck in using my rewards. I cashed them in for gift cards and will dump the card before they charge me.

 

[grantclaire]

Good to know. I've had fees with IHG in the past, but don't do a lot of reward nights anymore (no business travel anymore), I get more with Hotels.com just for booking rewards. Went to TPG to see if I could find out more about redemption policies for the programs, but coming up empty so far, although next week's beginner guide post should be getting into that area.

Marriott for one. Pretty sure Hilton, IHG, and the others I belong to are all the same way.

We had a free night this past summer with Marriott Bonvoy pts and they charged for parking.

 

[disneysteve]

We had a free night this past summer with Marriott Bonvoy pts and they charged for parking.

Yep. Reward nights typically include whatever the room itself would normally cost including taxes and resort fees. Since parking isn't included in the room cost, it's not covered by the reward redemption either.

Another factor is that at many hotels that charge for parking, the hotel doesn't actually own or operate the parking lot. That's done by an outside company.