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Comment by Alex3917 | Hacker News Reader

Fuck hotel tonight, they're not even a real business and they're just scamming people out of money. They hide their mandatory "resort fees" underneath the Pay button so that it's not visible on screen, and those fees aren't included in any of the prices that are either shown initially or are visible on payment screen (room rate, taxes & fees, or total).

You can see how this works in this video I made here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdrFYb4otTs

The entire app is designed to trick people about what the actual prices are. The founder is a total scumbag and belongs in prison.

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That's not for HT though, that's the hotel's policy and they take 100% of that charge. The hotel is choosing to advertise a room for $100 with a "hidden" $30 resort fee -- not HT.

Also, it's unfair to characterize it as a scam if it's printed clearly in the costs. It's your responsibility to read what you're paying for.

> Also, it's unfair to characterize it as a scam if it's printed clearly in the costs.

It isn't, which is why I posted the video showing that.

On the screen you can very clearly see:

  Room (1 Night): $180
  Taxes & Fees: $32
  Total: $221

The resort fee isn't included in any of those. They put it in fine print thats hidden below the Apple Pay button. But they designed the UI to make it so that the Payment button is flush with the bottom of the screen in order to hide the fact that the fine print is even there.

In other words, they're purposely trying to hide the fact that the page is scrollable or that there is more content (the fine print) after the fold, and are trying to lead the buyer to believe that they already have the full pricing information before hitting the Pay button.

If the fine print that included the resort fee was above the Payment button then that would be one thing, but it's purposely designed so that you can't even see that the fine print even exists.

Well it's because they aren't charging you the resort fee, the hotel does that. They itemize what you're actually paying for... Just like they mention, but don't charge you for parking ahead of time. That's up to the hotel.

Anyway, the UI is different now and in big type it says "Due Now" with the resort fee mentioned under that. I personally didn't find it confusing before, but it's now quite clear.

Parking is optional Resort fee is not.

This isn't a difficult concept.

It's also not a difficult concept that since you don't pay the fee to Hotel Tonight that they don't charge you that fee. Just like every other OTA in existence. It's a scummy business practice by hotels, but it's clearly outlined when you book the room.

> don't charge you for parking ahead of time.

But hotels don't charge you a parking fee if you don't park there. Whereas they won't let you check into the hotel unless you pay the "resort fee".

Again I have no problem with hotels charging part of the price upon check in, but it's super unethical for Hotel Tonight to:

A) advertise hotels based on prices you can't actually get a room for

B) do everything possible to hide the fact that the hotel won't actually let you check in without paying an additional fee (sometimes hundreds of dollars) until you've already made a large non-refundable payment

C) lie to people's credit card companies when they dispute the charges

This isn't a legitimate business, it's a criminal enterprise.

what hotel charges a resort fee in the hundreds of dollars?

"Resort Fee" is a made up fee to mislead customers and it is not the same as a parking fee.

I’ve been burned by this on both hotels.com and hoteltonight. Show up at 11pm for your $89 room, learn about the mandatory $215 resort fee for the pool and gym you didn’t use.

wtf.. did that really happen? that's some major bs, i would expect to see the all in price with a last minute site like this

In prison? That's exactly how all hotel bookings work. I agree resort fees are a scam, but that's how it works and it's always charged directly by the property.

> that's how it works and it's always charged directly by the property.

If the hotel wants to charge their own fee separate from the app then that's not a problem at all. The problem is the Hotel Tonight lying about what the prices are.

But it works that way even if you book on the hotel's own website... Or Hotels.com, Booking, whatever you want.

Just because it's being done by different companies it doesn't make it right. It's a shady way to lure customers and mislead them. They manipulate these fees in order to have a lower price displayed on the search results.

If Hotel Tonight isn't a real company because of these hidden fees, then neither are the actual hotels charging the fees. If Hotel Tonight should be in prison because of these fees, then so should the hotels actually charging them.

If you hate Hotel Tonight because of the fees, you shouldn't be staying at the hotel actually charging the fees.

> If you hate Hotel Tonight because of the fees

Once again, the issue is that HotelTonight deliberately implemented a dark pattern to hide the price. They know the fee amount. They display it. They could've shown it as part of the itemization, but they specifically did not.

Okay, hotel websites do this too? So what? TFA is about HotelTonight.

If hotels aren't disclosing these fees to HotelTonight, that's hardly HT's fault.

They are disclosing them, HT isn't including them in the prices they're showing the users though. C.f. the video I posted. What you see before I start scrolling is the entire screen that's visible to the user, with the Apple Pay button at the very bottom.

The fee is disclosed in the small print on HT. But it's not part of the total you pay to HT.

when is a fee not a fee? why isn't it included in the fee + taxes ?

That's the point we are trying to make. I don't agree with this practice. I don't agree with the "Resort Fee" practice and I'd love to learn about a hotel aggregator that doesn't do this. Any recommendation?

I dont think they exist. This is part of how the hotel stipulates its operation and listing on a website.

Edit: from a US perspective, maybe things are better over the pond.

HotelTonight doesn't collect money for this fee, only reservation + taxes.

The resort fee is charged directly by the hotel.

> That's exactly how all hotel bookings work.

It is? In some countries, perhaps. It shouldn't be, and it needn't be, given just a little bit of consumer-friendly regulation of how prices are advertised.

Yes, try booking a resort from Hotel Tonight, Hotels.com, Booking, Expedia or whoever you want. You'll always pay the resort fee at the property. I agree that it's a scam, my point is just that it has nothing to do with Hotel Tonight.

How old is your version of the app?

I've seen this for as long as I can remember: https://imgur.com/a/GsyPKPJ

It clearly displays the resort fee in the hotel information, and before the payment.

This happened around a year ago (the app was up to date at the time), and the UI was the same for several months after. I haven’t opened it recently.

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