travelling-blogger

comments

Britons who are jetting abroad to the US or Caribbean to fix their post-holiday blues are being warned about hidden hotel costs which could amount to hundreds of pounds in additional fees.

Holidaymakers should read the fine print before they book 'too good to be true' deals as they could be hit with larger-than-expected bills when it's time to check out.

Hotels in Las Vegas, New York and Florida, for example, were found to charge up to £50-a-day extra for non-negotiable so-called 'resort fees', according to researchers from Which? consumer magazine.

Expedia and Hotels.com failed to adequately show the $28-per-day fee to stay at Las Vegas' Wynn Hotel

The potentially misleading offers have seen Expedia reprimanded by the industry watchdog

Which? researchers found that the fees were 'easy to miss' on at least two major travel websites as the extra charges were detailed away from the main room price.

Which? travel editor Jill Starley-Grainger said: 'It can pay to check the small print on travel deals as we've found the price on some hotel-booking sites could be misleading by not including non-optional add-on charges.

'Remember the golden rule - if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is.'

Under EU rules any travel website must display any hidden costs explicitly and not bury them in the small-print.

Hotels in New York were among those found to charge up to £50-a-day extra for so-called 'resort fees'

However, details were often included in the terms and conditions found in small-print as a footnote to a webpage, the study found.

The potentially misleading offers have seen online travel giant Expedia reprimanded by the industry watchdog and victims have been urged to complain.

A deal for the Westhouse Hotel in New York was advertised on its website with all taxes and fees included, whereas in fact a mandatory resort daily charge of $30 (£20) was payable on departure.

Along with Expedia researchers analysed deals on Ebookers, Hotels.com, Opodo and Lastminute.com.

Of the five leading sites Expedia and Hotels.com failed to adequately show the $28-per-day (£19) resort fee to stay at the five-star Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas.

Holidaymakers are being warned to read the fine print before booking hotels in destinations such as Florida

Rooms at the Wynn were £180 per night at the time the researchers checked. The resort fee is payable per person, so won't be linked to the price of a room.

In both cases the extra charge only emerged after scrolling down the page or clicking through to another.

Which? said the extras needed to be 'much clearer' and appear alongside the room price at the top of the page.

In response Expedia announced it was planning to overhaul the way it displays the fees and had made some initial changes.

Hotels.com said it was also looking into the issue.

An Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) spokesman said: 'If anyone has concerns that an advertiser isn't being up-front about non-option charges we encourage them to get in touch with us.'