Just when you think hotels couldn’t get more creative with junk fees, a Marriott Fairfield Inn in Texas decided to disguise its parking charge as a “City Fee.”
What makes the deception obvious is simple math. In Plano, the only legitimate “city” hotel tax is 7% of the nightly rate. Yet the so-called “City Fee” was a flat $2.87 on nights with different room rates. That’s not how percentage-based taxes work. Add to that a “state cost recovery fee” (another hotel add-on that sounds official but isn’t), and you start to see a pattern…fees disguised as taxes to slip past guest scrutiny.
This episode perfectly captures a broader problem across the hotel industry: the creeping normalization of deceptive “junk fees.” Whether it’s “destination charges,” “resort fees,” or fake “city” surcharges, these tricks serve only to confuse and frustrate guests. And while $2.87 may seem trivial, multiply it across hundreds of rooms and weeks of bookings, and the fraud becomes a tidy profit center…I hope this franchisee pays dearly for this fraud.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on Live and Let's Fly.
