A reader writes in:
Choice Hotels are installing “Safes in Hotels” (these are small safes) and charging guests for the safe whether you use it or not. I have protested to the hotel but the desk clerk just says that she/he is required to charge for the safe in every room. I have also protested to Choice Hotels but no reply. Perhaps they will answer if you contact them.
I personally think it’s a rip-off, almost the same as the “$1 a day phone charge at Las Vegas Hotels.” You can tell when the Bean Counters are at work. They are only concerned about the bottom line, not thinking about the guests.
The last Comfort Inn I stayed at on 10 & 11 July in Dumfries, VA was having the safes installed as I left. I will no longer stay at that hotel or any other Choice Hotel that has a “Safe Charge.”
-Harry S.
PeterGreenberg.com contacted Choice Hotels to investigate. According to David Peikin, Senior Director of Corporate Communications:
All 4,300-plus Choice hotels [this includes Comfort Inn, Clarion and EconoLodge, among others] in the United States are franchised. That means that they are individually owned and operated. The Choice brand doesn’t’ have a policy governing safes…it’s at the discretion of the owners if they want to put one in.
So we checked in with the Comfort Inn in Dumfries, Virginia, where General Manager Terry Short explained:
There is a $1.50 charge for room safes. But if the guest doesn’t use it and lets us know, we’ll take the charge off.
This case was a simple one. But it brings up an important issue in the hotel industry…we call it “nickel and diming.”
Through his travels, Peter has been a victim of the mandatory bellman tip, hospitality fees, room service fees, and fees for receiving Fed Ex packages.
So what are you supposed to do in these situations? Confront them. That’s right. It’s called a failure to disclose, and if you weren’t told about a charge upon check in, you don’t have to pay it upon checkout.
And if they insist, write us at Peter@PeterGreenberg.com.
Read more about failures to disclose here at http://newsite.petergreenberg.com/2007/03/19/failure-to-disclose
