Hotels Increasingly Charge Hidden Fees
CHETRY: You know how they always say you've got to read the fine print, but it's hard to read because they make it so fine.</s>ROBERTS: Should try reading it with my eyes.</s>CHETRY: I don't think mine are much better, exactly. Or I'm the opposite. I'm like this. But the bottom line is, it's all of these hidden fees, and most of the time you probably don't know you're getting slammed for them.</s>ROBERTS: Sure. Like what the heck is a resort fee? Industry is becoming master right up there with cell phones and credit cards with nickel and diming you. Gerri Willis is here to tell you how you can avoid getting burned by all these little fees that add up.</s>WILLIS: In case you can't see them, we have our reading glasses right here. Yes, it's the gotcha fees, guys, the hidden ones, the ones you don't know about that come to your attention after you've receive the service or product. Those are the ones that hurt the most, and they are everywhere, and they are growing.</s>GERRI WILLIS, PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: From cell phones to cable service, to credit cards and banks, to airline travel and hotel stays, experts say the average American is spending close to $1,000 a year extra on hidden fees and surcharges, a nickel here, a dime there.</s>BOB SULLIVAN, AUTHOR, "RED TAPE CHRONICLES": That's real money. Married couples, we're talking about $2,000. That's a nice chunk of change to stock a healthy retirement pay, a nice vacation, get a head start on school costs.</s>WILLIS: Bob Sullivan is the author of "The Red Tape Chronicles."</s>SULLIVAN: Almost every transaction now, if you're buying a car, buying a house, getting a cell phone, the company knows far much more than you do, including they know what the real cost is. And when there's all this confusion over what things cost, well, consumers lose.</s>WILLIS: And they're losing in a big way. The average fee ranges from less than $1 to $10. While that may not seem like a lot of money, it adds up. Cell phone fees average $9.40 a month, more than $116 a year. Cable and satellite fees on average run $9.52 a month, totally $114 a year. Every time you fly, $33.44. With a national ticket of three and a half tickets a year, that totals $102 a year. Credit card bills are $7.72 a month, bringing the annual costs to $92. And the average fee incurred for a hotel stay is close to $25, roughly $95 a year per person. Bjorn Hanson is a professor at NYU's Tisch Center for Hospitality. He says hotels have become more creative in what he calls the "surprise fee."</s>BJORN HANSON, PROFESSOR, NYU TISCH CENTER: The hotels in 2008 collected about $1.75 billion on fees and surcharges. Some of the fees that surprised guests the most would be an early departure fee, a cancellation fee, mini bar restocking charges, luggage or baggage holding fees.</s>WILLIS: Some hotels go as far as charging resort amenity fees for towels, and some urban hotels even charge a daily fee for receiving faxes.</s>ROBERTS: That's amazing.</s>CHETRY: It is amazing. And Gerri, what is it that we can actually do about these fees, if anything, besides just being annoyed?</s>WILLIS: You can negotiate them. That is possible. Experts say the best way not to avoid being surprised by hidden fees or surcharges is to ask up front before every transaction, what's the final cost I'm going to pay, and then you can negotiate from there.</s>ROBERTS: That actually works? You can phone them up and say, I don't want to pay, and they we'll take it off?</s>WILLIS: Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. But the groups that are most likely to work with you on this are the credit cards and the hotels. Those are the groups that will most likely cut your costs and your prices. You know how this is. We were talking about this earlier this week. You call up your credit card company and you're like, I don't want to pay this fee, and they're like, oh, OK, we'll take it off. Did they need that money? I guess not. It was just extra fees, extra surcharges, and that's what we've been talking about all week.</s>ROBERTS: I guess they just figure that most people will just like, suck it up, right?</s>WILLIS: I know. And so you've got to challenge them at every turn. That's what it comes down to. You've got to negotiate for yourself. You've got to be vigilant. You've got to be watching that bill, making sure that you're not paying extra.</s>CHETRY: It's good advice. A little bit extra time could save you a lot of money.</s>WILLIS: That's right.</s>CHETRY: Gerri, thank you.</s>WILLIS: My pleasure.</s>CHETRY: Still ahead, we'll talk about climate change and some concerns right now and some really ambitious goals about making a difference. Eric Larson will be joining us about how one person -- can one person a make a difference?