Time to say “aloha” to the resort fee capital of the world?

As long as we’re saying aloha today — it’s Aloha Airlines’ last day on earth, sadly — we might as well talk about something else Hawaii should say goodbye to: its greedy and ubiquitous resort fees.

Hawaii is known far and wide for the mandatory extras that are added to guests’ hotel bills. John Lindelow, a travel agency owner who specializes in Hawaii, says the resort fee craze began back in 2000 and spread faster than a swarm felted coccids eats through a Macadamia nut farm.

Lindelow keeps a database of these avaricious hotels.

The biggest offenders? The Wailea Beach Marriott Resort & Spa in Maui charges an eye-popping $25 per day mandatory resort fee. So does Maui’s Grand Wailea Resort.

“These fees can cause checkout sticker shock if guests don’t include them in their pre-trip cost calculations,” warns Lindelow. “And often the hotels’ own Web sites don’t make such fees apparent.”

To be completely fair to the innkeepers of Hawaii, there are plenty of high-end resorts that don’t charge these fees. Among them are the Four Seasons Manele Bay Hotel, the Hotel Hana Maui and the JW Marriott Ihilani Resort and Spa. Even so, Hawaii remains the resort fee capital of the world.

Mandatory resort fees are unfair, unethical and unconscionable. If the resorts on this list don’t end these surcharges, and if a court of law can’t persuade them otherwise, maybe visitors should say “aloha” to another vacation destination.

  • Joe Farrell

    And you wonder why we always rent houses when we go to Hawai’i – a small two bedroom house in a real neighborhood with all the amenities is $1500 a week, or about $200 a day. Take a $200 hotel room, add the resort fee, bed fee, occupancy tax and $20 pot of coffee every day – and viola, I’m spending $300 a week less for more room, more comfort, and the ability to cook a meal. Hotels are so old school.

  • http://beatofhawaii.com beatofhawaii.com

    Concur completely on the resort fees – in fact I don’t think I’ve ever paid one.

    As for Aloha, just to get the story straight, what forced AQ into final bankruptcy wasn’t competition, it was years of poor decisions. These included failure of the prior owners to modernize its inter-island fleet, expand its trans-pacific fleet beyond a handful of 737-700′s, and obtain more lucrative mainland and international routes. These choices, which had been ruining their business over a period of years, were only exacerbated by competition and fuel costs. I’m not sure what Ron Burkle was thinking with his more recent $100M investment, but in the end, it was too little, too late. Too bad for the nearly 2,000 loyal employees and their families.

  • Ed Kummel

    And with the recent decision of the County of Maui to increase taxes on timeshare owners, has created an environment of greed to vacationers.
    After spending a week in Maui last year, I seriously sat down and considered adding a Maui Timehshare to my stable of timeshares. But when I saw that Maui increased again it’s taxes on non residents, I decided that perhaps a timeshare on one of the other islands would be a better purchase.
    I love going to Hawaii and try to get there every couple of years…but if Maui insists on punnishing the very vacationers who make up over 60% of the revenue of the island, they will find themselves wondering where the money went…
    Ed

  • http://Travel-Hawaii.com John Lindelow

    Our company Travel Hawaii did the research on the resort fees at Hawaii hotels noted by Chris Elliott. We’ve asked ourselves why so many Hawaii hotels charge resort fees and risk the wrath of guests. There’s three possibilities, or a combination thereof: First, by breaking out some of their expenses as a Resort Fee, the hotels can avoid paying the State’s tax of 7.25% on that portion (they still pay 4.16% General Excise tax but avoid the additional 7.25). Second, the hotels don’t have to pay commission to travel agents on what they charge for Resort Fees; and third, the hotels can make it seem like they have lower overall prices by advertising the room rate only and then adding the Resort Fee only when the client checks out. It’s probably a combo of these factors, but it goes to show what happens when the bean counters get too much influence over the marketing department.

  • Hawaii Innkeeper

    John Lindelow said: “by breaking out some of their expenses as a Resort Fee, the hotels can avoid paying the State’s tax of 7.25% on that portion (they still pay 4.16% General Excise tax but avoid the additional 7.25)”

    In that sense, the resort fee is saving 7.25% for the guests. At an all-inclusive resort, they would have to pay the 7.25% on parking, internet access, beach activities, etc., all of which should not be included in the occupancy tax.

    And for the guest that prefers home rentals to avoid paying the occupancy tax, unless they are renting for 6 months or longer, the 7.25% still applies.

  • http://nil William Harrison

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    Bill Harrison