Marriott International has agreed to "prominently disclose" its mandatory fees, including resort fees, on the first page of its U.S. booking websites as part of the total room rate, as part of a settlement reached with the Pennsylvania attorney general's office.
The hotel company has agreed to make the changes within the next nine months, "taking into account the comprehensive efforts required by Marriott to update multiple platforms and systems to ensure complete implementation," according to the settlement.
The practice of adding mandatory fees is known as "drip pricing" and includes such charges as "resort fees," "destination fees," "service fees" or "amenities fees." District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine's office and AGs from all 50 states sued Marriott in 2019, alleging that adding those fees amounted to deceptive pricing tactics. The case is scheduled to have a hearing in March 2022.
It is unclear how the Pennsylvania settlement will affect the 2019 suit. Racine's office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
An October 2021 Wall Street Journal article claimed that Marriott hotels collected more than $220 million in resort fees dating from 2012, and that the fees can range from $9 to $95.
"Marriott International has long been committed to making sure that any resort/destination fees charged by hotels in the U.S. are separately and clearly stated," Marriott in a statement said. "For many years, consistent with guidance from the Federal Trade Commission, we have clearly disclosed such fees on our channels throughout the booking process, with disclosures on multiple pages before the customer elects to book a room. Further, we have controls in place to ensure that hotels in our system that include a resort/destination fee adhere to strict criteria, which includes a requirement to provide amenities that have a value exceeding the amount of the resort/destination fee. Our agreement with the state of Pennsylvania further enhances the way resort/destination fees are fully disclosed on our U.S. channels, and we will be working over the next several months to update the room rate display in accordance with that agreement."
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