Management

Housekeeping Fees Will Cost You

One after effect of the GFC was that travellers – holiday, corporate and VFR – are much more careful with their money. And that applies to expenditure on accommodation in particular.

As a result, hotel add-on charges are seen as a rip-off by many.

Airlines, it would seem, have got away with add-on fees. Around 2008, many airlines began to adopt extra fees to check luggage, order Wi-Fi services or upgrade to a seat with more legroom, among other charges. For some airlines, so-called ancillary revenue now represents between 15% and 30% of all income.

That does not mean that consumers are happy about it – they merely have little choice. The number of airlines flying point-to-point are not that great, so passengers have to cough up and moan away on Facebook or Twitter.

Not so with accommodation. There is plenty of competition in most places and accommodation providers that supplement their low tariffs with a mass of add-on charges are facing a lot of traveller (and media) scrutiny. To the extent that warnings to travellers like “be on the lookout for fees on your hotel bill for everything from check in to housekeeping” are appearing in daily newspapers. This one quoted was in an Australian daily referring to overseas travel. But add-ons are appearing throughout Australia as well.

There are for’s and against’s add-ons, of course. Many travellers don’t see why they should pay for gyms, spas and valet parking if they have no intention of using them.

Others begrudge paying anything extra… like high-speed Internet connections or in-room movies.

Most travellers accept extra charges are applied for valet parking, fitness centres, late check-out and mini-bar restocking but not for in-room safes, coffee making and, as we all know only too well, Internet connections.

But the most upsetting for travellers is add-on charges for housekeeping services. Most travellers assume that all housekeeping charges are included in the tariff. It is one thing to offer a discount (or brownie points of some sort) to forgo clean towels every day or take up a discount option for rooms without housekeeping but quite another to be charged a fee for “maid service” on top of a daily room rate.

The problem is the Internet. It has so magnified the importance of on-line price comparisons that a lot of accommodation providers feel it’s very important for them to show up as low as they can in the base rates. The temptation is very high to take something that should be part of the room rate, separate it and add it on later.

But, if you’re booking online, these add-ons don’t appear in the price quote, making it much harder to comparison-shop. And that is where the consumer agro occurs, especially at check out.

A flick through any of the social media sites illustrates just how annoying this trend is with guests and this will eventually tell against the accommodation provider in some way.

And, really, shouldn’t basic housekeeping be the basis for any room rate?

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