Hats off to Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill…
She’s taking on the hotel industry which likes to add all those hidden charges to your bill.
They call them “Resort Fees” and other fancy names.
But basically they’re fees tagged on to your bill when you check out—even though your hotel room may have been pre-paid including the taxes.
Las Vegas is big on such fees where the Strip’s luxury palaces tag on anywhere from $20 to nearly $40 per room night.
Same in many popular Florida properties and increasingly throughout California.
If you ask what these resort fees cover they’ll tell you the pool, gym, local phone calls—all things which normally are free.
I call it a rip-off!
McCaskill calls the practice bait-and-switch since such fees are usually hidden from the advertised room rate or tacked on in fine print.
Her proposed legislation would prohibit advertising a hotel room that does NOT include all required fees other than taxes.
She is fighting for consumer fairness here which would stipulate that the Federal Trade Commission should have the authority to either enforce full publication of such charges or take action against hotel operators that fail to do so.
Whether booking direct or through a third party, consumers deserve complete transparency with their hotel reservations–as in no surprises!
And when Claire sets her mind to it there’s (hopefully) no stopping her.
If we build it, they will come. How many remember the Mayor Barnes words concerning the Sprint Center? There was the rental car tax, the hotel accommodation tax, the parking tax, and other “hidden fees” that go undisclosed until incurred. Independence at least has hockey, but there is no NBA team even contemplating a Sprint domicile. If it were a fee associated with an area, a resort fee collected by the city, would that be all right? Hardly. I am all for full disclosure, but I think some of the local fees and taxes need to be disclosed too, and since they dwarf a hotel’s resort fee, perhaps she is missing the point. After the Big 12 ends, join me for a night of Claire on the ice, as she practices with Kansas City’s professional hockey team getting the puck out of Washington. We are looking at,what I believe, is a statewide ballot issue that says.Missouri needs to collect sales taxes for vehicles purchased in another state. Why should we pay taxes to a state that provided no service in the transaction, a state whose sales taxes were not competitive? Perhaps, Claire’s battle to clean up the VA is not going well, money spent with no change. I am not one to forget her non-accomplishments, being reminded once a month, as I pay Blue Cross Blue Shield. In that venture, I propose that this 60 year old man be allowed to claim lactation classes with a few of my friends at Hooter on my health coverage, and fighting to change the Missouri Constitution to allow fetal stem cell research now appears to be ridiculous as results are coming from non-fetal sources, but it was an open invitation to Planned Parenthood to break existing federal law. Some 70% of Missouri voters said no to the ACA, but she said the voters didn’t count. Perhaps, if she were to actually do something productive, we could understand, but, as it stands now, I can’t bring myself to give cudos when she will accomplish nothing. I’ll give her my respect when I receive my 2500 savings in heathcare.
.
With all the talk of politics on this site I’m amazed it took this long for someone on the right to trash Claire here. She is so far superior to Blunt it’s stunning. Roy wants to do away with Medicare and Medicaid so he has no clue with regards to healthcare for the citizens of his State.
Kansas city, for a non-convention city has one of the highest tax percentages in the country. For example, if you rent a hotel room in the airport market you will pay:
16.225% 8.475% State tax, 7.50% City of KC tax .25% Platte County tax + Kansas City Arena Fee of $1.50 per room per night. And yes they tax the Arena Fee which is .13 cents for the state of Missouri and .12 for City of KC and Platte County. Your $100.00 room rate will cost you $16.23 in tax and $1.75 arena fee + taxes for $117.98