Revealed: The most expensive hidden fees set to earn hotels a record £1.4bn ... from a £36 welcome drink to £12 to use the internet
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Heading over to the States for a holiday? Be extra-attentive to the fine print at the hotel you're staying at, as fewer services now come for free.
Charges such as £36 for welcome drinks, £6 ($15) to receive a package, and a £12 ($20) 'Urban Fee' for internet usage and newspapers could be hidden in the cost of a room.
Hotels across America are expected to rake in a record £1.4bn ($2.25bn) in revenue from add-ons - a rise of 6 per cent on last year and nearly double a decade ago.
Hidden costs: The Paris Las Vegas Hotel and Casino charges guests £4.80 to print their flight boarding pass
Beware the costs: The Hyatt Regency San Antonio charges guest £6 to £15 to receive a package
Fees only add an extra 2 per cent in revenue but the study by Bjorn Hanson, a professor at New York University's hospitality school, notes the majority of that money is pure profit.
And now hotels are finding more and more inventive ways to charge guests for extra - with high-end resorts are also upping the price.
For £392 ($650) a night, guests at the St Regis Bahia Beach Resort in Puerto Rico enjoy rooms with 300-thread-count sheets and walk-in-closets. But that's not the full price.
To add on to that, there's a £36 ($60) nightly resort charge, for a welcome drink upon check-in, internet access, the use of beach umbrellas and lounge chairs, bicycles and a daily poolside iced tea service that includes fruit skewers. Guests pay whether they use the services or not.
The Fairmont Southampton in Bermuda, which charges £282 ($469) a night, adds a resort fee and mandatory gratuities for each person in a room.
This means two adults and two children sharing a room would incur £29.12 ($48.28) a night in-resort fees and £24.61 ($40.80) tips - adding 19 per cent to the nightly rate.
Perhaps nowhere are hotels pushing fees further than in Las Vegas.
Resorts such as The Bellagio are learning from airlines and selling enhancements.
Guests can pay £18 ($30) for each of the following - to skip the notoriously long Las Vegas check-in lines, for early check-in and for late checkout.
And for an £18 ($30), the Bellagio will lock in three room preferences such as bed type, requests to be near or far away from the elevators, rooms on a high or low floor or the option to have quieter non-connecting rooms.
The Hyatt Regency San Antonio, which subcontracts its business centre to FedEx Office, charges £6 to £15 ($10 to $25) to receive a package, depending on weight.
And some budget hotels charge 90p ($1.50) a night for in-room safes.
At the Liberty Hotel in Boston a cold can of Coke from the minibar costs £3 ($5) – and that's just the base price. And the fine print on the menu reveals an 18 per cent administrative fee to restock the bar.
The Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas charges £15 ($25) a day 'personal use fee' if a guest puts their own soda or bottled water in the minibar.
A guest in need of a mini-refrigerator can have one delivered to their room – for an extra £21.11 ($35) a night.
The Serrano hotel in downtown San Francisco adds on a £12 ($20) per night 'Urban Fee' that includes Internet, local phone calls, newspapers, morning coffee and use of bicycles.
The American Hotel and Lodging Association says fees are common in the travel business and that its members disclose them at the time of booking.
Enhancements: At The Bellagio guests can pay £18 ($30) to skip the notoriously long Las Vegas check-in lines
The Fairmont Southampton in Bermuda charges £282 a night and adds mandatory gratuities for each guest
The Serrano hotel in San Francisco adds on a £12 fee that includes Internet, morning coffee and use of bicycles
But convincing a front desk employee to waive a fee at check-out is getting harder.
Fees are more established, better disclosed and hotel employees are now trained to politely say no.
'It's the most difficult it's ever been to get a charge removed,' Hanson says.
Hotels first started adding surcharges in 1997 but as airlines and car rental agencies made fees commonplace, hotels started to think up new ones
And, according to Hanson's research, they have been collecting record amounts for the past four years.
'The airlines have done a really nice job of making hotel fees and surcharges seem reasonable,' says Hanson.
But there are some hotels which are bucking the trend, although those are few and far between.
Hyatt's upscale boutique Andaz chain offers complimentary local snacks and non-alcoholic drinks from its minibars.
But the fee which takes the cake?
That's the one Hank Phillippi Ryan, a mystery writer, faced.
Before heading to the airport, she went to the lobby of the Paris Las Vegas Hotel and Casino to print her boarding pass.
There a kiosk offered the service - for £4.80 ($7.95).
'I think I actually yelped,' she recalls. 'I had never seen that before.'
Prepare to shell out £3 for a can of Coke at The Liberty Hotel. The fine print on the menu reveals an 18% administrative fee to restock the bar
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