Each Friday, the HotelNewsNow.com editorial staff picks the most compelling (or downright gutsy) quote and reader comment from the previous week.
Quote of the week
When is a room rate not the rate guests pay? When an increasing number of hotels in the United States roll up additional charges into the ambiguously defined “resort fee,” writes HotelNewsNow.com correspondent Helena Iveson.
The practice is becoming more common throughout the U.S., especially in major destinations like Hawaii and Las Vegas, where guests are charged mandatory fees of up to US$25 a night.
Hotels are likely to pocket a record US$1.8 billion this year thanks to these extra fees, which are up 80% from 2001, according to a new study by Bjorn Hanson, dean of New York University’s Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management.
Consumer advocate Christopher Elliott takes a more critical stance: “(Hotels) want guests to think they are getting a deal on a room and then adding surcharges to increase their profits. That's lying, and it should be illegal.
“(It is) fundamentally dishonest to quote one price and then add a mandatory surcharge to the final bill,” he added.
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Read “Transparency crucial with extra fees.”
Comment of the week
Hersha Hospitality Management LP has filed suit against two former employees and their new employer, claiming the former employees allegedly stole thousands of confidential documents before leaving to take their new jobs, writes HotelNewsNow.com editor Shawn A. Turner.
In a 17 October filing in U.S. District Court, Hersha said the employees engaged in a “web of deception” in their final days at Hersha before leaving for positions at The Procaccianti Group, a private real-estate investment company. Before leaving, Hersha said in the filing, the two recruited two other key Hersha employees to also leave. The two denied recruiting the other executives, Hersha said in the filing.
By way of a computer forensic examination, Hersha also found the two former employees potentially stole “thousands” of sensitive computer files.
HotelNewsNow.com readers have been expressing their opinions regarding the lawsuit. Here’s what an anonymous commenter had to say:
“Anybody can file a suit for any reason or no reason, and pretty much say anything they want to say. Anybody notice that Hersha and TPG don't even swim in the same ocean, never mind the same pool.”
What are your thoughts? Join the conversation in the comments section of “Hersha: Ex-employees spun ‘web of deception.’“
