When a customer pays a nightly fee to stay at a resort, should they also pay an extra resort fee per night? To me, that’s akin to a hotel owner getting a bill from his management company with an extra line item written in for “management services.” How about having a housekeeping gratuity automatically billed to your folio? Or paying a “miscellaneous” charge for a variety of other services most good hotels provide on a regular basis? At a recent stay at a world-class resort, I paid a variety of those fees, despite the fact that I was also paying a hefty, non-discounted fee per night. One such fee was described as a “miscellaneous” one per night that included a connection charge for any local phone calls I made. When I received my folio, however, I saw that I was dunned an exorbitant amount for my long-distance calls, higher than even the ridiculously inflated charges hotels typically rack up for such things. There was, however, a perfectly good reason for the extremely high charges, I learned at the front desk, as I was trying to dash out to catch a plane. There was, on top of everything else, an $11 connection fee per long distance call, which was not included in my “miscellaneous” charge. After I questioned the business sense of running a hotel in such a fashion, the front-desk personnel held a pow-wow by going behind a well-appointed pillar and speaking behind cupped hands. They returned about five minutes later and said they’d cut the charges in half. I took the offer, but that whole luxury image I’d had of the resort was suddenly gone forever, having gone through such a nickel-and-dime experience there. Hotel owners need to be aware that their guests do not want to have meaningless fees layered into their nightly charges. It’s a topic owners should be especially sensitive to, since several of them are actually suing their management companies over what are perceived to be extra, non-decipherable, non-transparent fees. Chuck Ledsinger, president/CEO of Choice Hotels International, made a good point when I went to see him in his Silver Spring, MD offices a few weeks ago. He said he tells Choice franchisees that they are likely getting travelers who are trading down into “value-priced” accommodations during the downturn. “Treat these people right,” Ledsinger tells the hotel owners. “Take extra good care of them and they’ll come back.” Valuing customers in such a way is vital right now because all of the barometers indicate that travel is not going to hit an upswing soon. The terrorist events in Bali have not only tarnished the safe image of what many people perceived to be the ultimate paradise, they’ve shaken leisure travelers to their very boots. So dire are concerns over these recent events, global leaders from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), are meeting during the World Travel Market in London this week to specifically discuss travel security issues and their effect on the future of world travel. While it’s tough to encourage travel under such circumstances, the very least hotels can do is treat the guests who do arrive at their front doors right. When I met with the board of the Hotel Asset Managers Association (HAMA) recently, they told me that they are trying to get their hotels past the point of merely containing costs, and more into a revenue-enhancement mode. They’re wondering how they can draw more profits from food–and-beverage outlets and other revenue generators at the properties they oversee. There are plenty of good ideas out there. The St. Regis Monarch Beach in California is selling 100 local memberships to its exclusive spa, and including discounts for room nights, food and beverage, golf, and other activities at the hotel (see page 69) in order to get nearby residents to spend money at the property’s facilities. Garnering revenue from incremental business, rather than sucking more dollars from an existing guest for services that don’t actually exist, is the way to go. And so
