At a time of increased political polarization, it can be revealing to see what issues enjoy support from elected officials of both major parties. Turns out Democrats and Republicans alike can agree on this: misleading hotel fees are bad. They’ve been a recent target of the Biden administration, for one thing. Meanwhile, earlier this week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Hilton over what his office termed “misleading consumers about the true costs of hotel rooms in violation of Texas consumer protection laws.”
Hilton is the third such hotel chain to face a lawsuit from the Texas Attorney General’s office. As The Points Guy’s Cameron Sperance reported, Hilton follows Hyatt, which faced a similar lawsuit, and Marriott, which settled with the state.
“I warned these companies they would face consequences for this behavior, and Texas has delivered aggressive action to protect consumers, promote price transparency in the hotel and travel industries, and ensure that companies violating our laws are held responsible for misleading the public,” Attorney General Paxton said in a statement.
Study: Budget Airlines May Be Charging You Hundreds of Dollars in Hidden Fees
Low-tier doesn’t always equal low-cost“[W]hile these fees and billing practices may appear nominal to individual consumers, in the aggregate they amount to millions of dollars in fraudulent charges,” the lawsuit states. It goes on to cite multiple examples of rates at Hilton properties where additional fees not factored into the base rate add significant amounts to the rate a traveler would pay per night.
As The Points Guy’s article notes, Marriott now includes mandatory fees in the prices shown to prospective travelers. It’s not hard to see something similar coming up as a result of this, depending on the outcome of the lawsuit.
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