In Europe travel websites are no allowed to do that. They have to list final prices including any taxes, credit card fees and such. http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-844_en.htm A recent trick was to default to a co-branded credit card where any other payment method costs extra. Of course the co-branded credit card has a high annual fee so it was unlikely a user would choose that.
I recently booked on Hotwire in Europe and was charged an undisclosed "city tax" at the hotel. In the Hotwire fine print, it states: "Hotwire rates do not include special fees charged by hotels upon check-out. ... Customers will be required to pay these fees directly to the hotels at check-out time." (https://www.hotwire.com/mobile/legal/restrictions)
That's really misleading wording if they're using it to charge "city tax". Fees upon checkout are usually based on any charged consumables, damage, room service etc. and it makes sense that those won't be included.
Comments
In Europe travel websites are no allowed to do that. They have to list final prices including any taxes, credit card fees and such. http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-844_en.htm A recent trick was to default to a co-branded credit card where any other payment method costs extra. Of course the co-branded credit card has a high annual fee so it was unlikely a user would choose that.
I recently booked on Hotwire in Europe and was charged an undisclosed "city tax" at the hotel. In the Hotwire fine print, it states: "Hotwire rates do not include special fees charged by hotels upon check-out. ... Customers will be required to pay these fees directly to the hotels at check-out time." (https://www.hotwire.com/mobile/legal/restrictions)
That's really misleading wording if they're using it to charge "city tax". Fees upon checkout are usually based on any charged consumables, damage, room service etc. and it makes sense that those won't be included.
The portion I excluded clarifies that "special fees" include: energy charges, convention fees, resort fees, and parking fees.
Does that mean that european travel websites will list the full prices even for American hotels?