In the world of deceptive marketing, resort and destination fees at hotels win the prize. One Hyatt in Boston is charging you extra for the views from your room and the right to photograph them.
Hyatt “Destination Fee” Includes Permission To Take Pictures At Hotel…
The Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor, a hotel I have stayed at near Boston Logan Airport, charges guests a $25 daily “destination fee” in addition to its nightly room rate. This includes:
- Premium WIFI
- Local & Domestic LD only
- Morning Drip Coffee at Harborside Grill
- Daily Newspaper
- Panoramic Views of Boston with photo opportunity
- 2 water bottles daily
- Waived Rollaway bed fee
- Discount area attractions
- Discount round-trip Water Taxi Ticket
- $10 Food Credit in Harborside Grill (Dinner Only)
- 10% off of laundry/dry cleaning
- $10 Overnight Self -Parking Credit
- Boston gift bag with memento magnet, chocolate truffle, and Boston Baked Beans
- Waived fee for incoming/outgoing faxes and printing
I don’t know many travelers who want to pay $25/day for weak coffee, a “moment” magnet, and a can of baked bean, but this is the new trend and regulators have shown no inclination toward restricting such pricing practices.
These destination-fees gives travelers a misleading picture of pricing during initial searches and in many cases, charge for services or amenities that reasonably are indispensable and inseparable from the stay itself.
Like panoramic views of Boston with photo opportunity? What, were the windows blacked out before? Did the hotel’s patio have a cover charge?
What’s next, charging extra for use of the lamps, TV, bedspread, and hair dryer in the room?
Even though I’m spared from such nickel-and-diming at Hyatt due to my Globalist status, I cannot help but to shake my head at how foolish these extra fees are.
And while I hate them, my true problem is not the fees themselves, but the lack of disclosure during the initial booking process.
CONCLUSION
At the Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor, you’ll pay an extra $25/night for the privilege of being able to take a picture. That’s even worse than the electricity surcharge we recently highlighted in Las Vegas.
(H/T: View From The Wing // image: Hyatt)
Matthew, Boston Baked Beans is a sweet candy. And they are not served in a can.
It’s rare that I laugh when reading articles on here, but reading “a can of baked beans” definitely made me laugh.
I guess it’s not that rare since I laughed at the lady saying “literally everyone I know is a lawyer”!
That’s alright, I lived in NH for 10 years and thought the same thing as Matthew did. So, it’s obvious only to someone actually FROM Boston that “Boston Baked Beans” are a candy and not from B&M.
That’s nice that the fee includes use of the fax machine.
LOL. Boston baked beans are candies, not usually served in a can. Still a ridiculous fee
Oops!
It’s ok Matthew – I lived in NH for 10 years and thought the same thing as Matthew did. So, it’s obvious only to someone actually FROM Boston that “Boston Baked Beans” are a candy and not from B&M.
*reposting this here because my initial reply is in the wrong spot.
As long as stupid people pay that stupid fee they will keep innovating. If they get ZERO guests they will review this absurdity.
Pretty easy to choose other hotel brands without such charges…then Hyatt will get the message. If people choose to pay such silly charges…Hyatt would be foolish not to charge them.
HYATT Regency in Boston has the same charge I was there last week and avoided it by using points for the stay.
DO NOT FREQUENT HYATT. Then this grievous money grubbing grabfest will end. SHAME ON HYATT FOR ITS UNETHICAL PRACTICES.
There’s only one way this nonsense stops – boycott individual hotels, Hyatt or otherwise, that charge these junk fees. As it is, why should Hyatt back down? They know committed Hyattists like you, Kyle, Lucky, etc. aren’t really going to care, since you don’t have to pay. For that matter, how many business travelers really care, since either their employer is eating the cost, or they’ve negotiated a bulk corporate rate that waives the fee. Even if they didn’t exempt you from the fees, would you and Kyle seriously consider giving up your suite upgrades on your next trip to Boston because of $25 a night? Or would we see a post sort of complaining but justifying your continued loyalty?
I can pretty much guarantee that if enough Globalists told Hyatt that they refused to consider the Boston Harbor property because of their insistence on charging junk fees, though, they’d knock it off.
I would make sure to send a few dozen pages of faxes to Europe when staying here
“I would make sure to send a few dozen pages of faxes to Europe when staying here”
Hehehe. That wouldn’t hurt them much.
Calls to landlines in Europe, with a decent plan, are a penny a minute. Assuming a fax takes about 5 seconds a page to transmit, the most amount of time spent on the phone would be 10 minutes or so or 10 cents.
Charge ’em for the lice, Extra for the mice, Two percent for looking in the mirror twice. Here a little slice, There a little cut, Three percent for sleeping with the window shut. When it comes to fixing prices, There are a lot of tricks he knows. How it all increases, All those bits and pieces, Jesus! It’s amazing how it grows! From Les Miserables.
They charge that fee because they _can_. They have more freedom and better lawyers than the poor slobs who stay there.
This is almost identical to resort fees in Vegas and in Florida.