Hidden Fees To Watch Out for When Traveling
Have you ever made travel reservations just to discover the price you were quoted is a lot more than the final price with all the taxes and fees? Many travelers get discouraged as they fall victim to paying a lot of money in hidden fees they weren’t aware. If you are traveling in the near future, be on the lookout for these hidden fees.
Resort Fee
What Is It: This fee is commonly seen at many hotels. Supposedly it is charged to cover the cost of certain amenities.
What You Can Do About It: Hotels don’t often divulge what a resort fee includes. This extra charge usually covers things like towels at the pool or daily room cleaning that other hotels don’t charge for. It may be worth it to utilize a hotel with a resort fee if their overall rates are low even with this extra fee added in. Another thing to watch out for is non-refundable fares. Hotels are offering lower rates but you can’t change your mind, so make sure there is no chance of cancelling before you choose these rates.
Booking Over The Phone
What Is It: This fee is charged when you try to book a reservation for a flight over the phone. Not all airlines disclose this fee when you are actually making the reservation.
What You Can Do About It: To find out if you will be charged this extra fee for booking over the phone, read the fine print on the airline’s website very carefully. If there is a fee to book over the phone, opt to book online in order to avoid it.
Online Booking Fees
What Is It? Watch line sites when booking airline and hotels, as at time they will add a booking fee. We had a client book a cruise with American Airlines and want to cancel it 24 hours later, and they charged him a $50 processing fee.
What can you Do About It: Use a travel agent. Most will not charge any fees for hotel, car and cruise reservations.
Parking
What Is It: Just because you are staying at a hotel doesn’t mean that you will automatically get free parking. This could cost you every night of your stay.
What You Can Do About It: Imagine your surprise booking a reservation at a hotel only to find out that you actually have to pay to park there. Before booking a hotel room, check out their rules when it comes to parking. If they do charge to park, try to haggle down your room price a bit so that you will break even. A lot of hotels will try to work with you rather than lose you as a customer. Check their specials as often you can get complimentary breakfast and parking if you book the right rate.
Wi-Fi
What Is It: In this day and age you would expect Wi-Fi to be free and readily available wherever you are. This is not always the case. Everyone from hotels, to restaurants, to airports, may actually charge you to use Wi-Fi. These fees aren’t always cheap, especially when you consider the short amount of time that you might need them.
What You Can Do About It: Before traveling figure out what places you are going to that will have free Wi-Fi and which places will charge you to use it. Don’t assume that your hotel will have free Wi-Fi or that the airport will have it as well. Find out if there’s a charge and plan accordingly. Either do without Wi-Fi or be prepared to pay the fee to get internet access.
Gratuities
Many people are opting to purchase beverage and dining packages with on cruises. Please note that the cruise line is already adding gratuities onto these packages. You don’t want to tip bartenders or waiters unless they have given you exceptional service, as you have already been charge 15 to 18% gratuity when you purchased the package depending on the cruise line.
