We’ve seen all sorts of strange fees tacked on to hotels, including resort fees, destination fees, COVID-19 fees, and even electricity fees…but now comes a new one from a Hyatt hotel in Hawaii: a damage waiver fee. And the sad thing is that foolish fee could easily invite a lot more damage…
Damage Waiver Fee At Hyatt In Maui Begs Guests To Damage The Room…
The Mauna Lani Point, a Destination by Hyatt Residence in Hawaii, prominently discloses the following $79 fee for all bookings:
The Damage Waiver covers the registered guest and such other persons who are authorized in writing to reside in the Vacation Rental Residence overnight as part of the reservation for up to $1,500.00 of accidental damage to the Vacation Rental Residence or its contents (such as furniture, fixtures, and appliances), but not personal items of the Registered Guest, as long as the Registered Guest reports the incident to Destination Residences Hawaii LLC prior to checking out.
That’s a pretty high (frankly obscene) insurance rate that covers only $1,500, especially for short stays. It’s also a bit onerous that any damaged or missing items must be reported before check-out – I’d imagine that damage would innocently go unnoticed, like if a child cracks a lamp or puts a dent in the refrigerator then doesn’t tell his parents (as a father of two, I speak from experience…).
Serious question. Isn’t it reasonable (sad, but reasonable) to conclude that this will invite people to be reckless? While the policy excludes “intentional” damage, how is it possible to prove that the TV deliberately fell down and shattered or those scratches across the Sub-Zero refrigerator were malicious?
I doubt many will deliberately inflict damage, but the human mentality is odd – users on FlyerTalk are discussing how they can now damage the room and get away with it. We are spiteful creatures…
CONCLUSION
Holding guests accountable for damage is appropriate, but charging them an absurd price for insurance they may choose to reject is unconscionable. I hope that Hyatt will put some pressure on this the Mauna Lani Point to rescind this mandatory fee.
(H/T FlyerTalk via One Mile At A Time)
Header to the second paragraph says the hotel is in Miami. I think you mean Maui
Like the damage waiver fees for rental cars. Some equal an annual rate of $30,000. What a money maker!
That’s just inviting “accidents”.
Don’t do business with anyone or anything in hawaii.
Reminds me of the Maryland hotel laws which regulate and standardizes the fee for smoking in an elevator to $25? That’s basically qn invitation to smoke there as far as I can tell lol
Like insurance at the rental car counter…..
“yeah, since you’re forcing me into it. Give me all of the insurance because I am going to drive the life out of that car. ”
Signed,
Every one that’s ever been ambushed at the rental car checkout.
Deregulation is wonderful…for the companies to raise prices in sneaky ways.
This kind of stuff will be the norm if deregulation is allowed to run rampant.
Unless I have been given a complete inventory with assigned value at check in, how can I be responsible for the unit contents? This is not a rental car! And I am not going to spend the time & effort doing a detailed inspection on seat cushions & appliances etc. Ugh. Rather stay home
Sad to say but hotels in Hawaii are a never-ending scam with fees, starting with the odious, ubiquitous, and mandatory “daily resort fee” to cover a a range of things that should either be an optional charge (eg. snorkel gear, valet parking) or otherwise just included with the room charge (eg. in-room coffee/tea, pool towels). In some places it’s as much as an extra $45 per night. Let’s call it what it is – an attempt to make their base rates look cheaper than they really are on booking websites.
Hyatt needs hotels on the Big Island. There are only these ‘destination’ condos—how does Mauna Lani qualify as a hotel? Given the deceptive and exaggerated cleaning fees on airbnb I doubt this property will suffer for the their mandatory insurance policy.
Hotels (and indeed all businesses) need to be regulated the same as airlines. The price you quote for a room needs to be the same at checkout, no bs additional taxes or resort fees. $100 a night shouldn’t mean $200+ at checkout.
And because of this $79 fee, I’d never stay there. I know that I personally don’t matter, but junk fees like this usually bring down review scores and surely push away other consumers like me. Honestly, waived resort fees for Globalists are one of the biggest draws to WOH. Surely they’ll reconsider after all the bad press they’ve had.