Rather than bundling them together in room rates, many hotels have made resort fees more explicit. The Phoenician, a Marriott Luxury Collection resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, for example, has a resort fees page on his website, listing what guests get for their daily rate of $ 45 per room: Wi-Fi (worth, he says, $ 14.95), morning yoga ($ 30), one hour of tennis ($ 75), an hour of pickleball ($ 75)), bikes ($ 35) and a tasting of craft beers.

Hotels are yet to recover from the pandemic – according to the AHLA, room revenues are expected to fall by nearly $ 44 billion in 2021 compared to 2019 – which could make the fees more attractive.

“My research shows that large full-service resort hotels have been particularly affected by Covid, and they are still reeling from its effects,” wrote John W. O’Neill, professor and director of Hospitality Real Estate Strategy Group at Pennsylvania State University, in an email. He added that some have adopted “partitioned pricing,” the types of fees that are mandatory but reserved for a service, such as baggage fees in airlines or resort fees that cover Wi-Fi and more in. hotels.

For now, some have suspended fees. New Hilton Santa Monica & Suites Hotel, where amenities include a rooftop pool, waived standard resort fees and charges $ 9.95 for basic Wi-Fi and $ 14.95 for faster service. He doesn’t plan to add the $ 39 fee until 2023, which will then also cover yoga on the beach and loaner bikes.

Mohonk mountain house in New York’s Hudson Valley recently dropped its administration fee by 15 percent. To cover the costs of rising wages and supplies, it plans to increase rates by around 7% in 2022.

Clean more, pay more

While intense cleaning has been found to be less important than wearing a mask and circulating air in preventing the spread of Covid-19, strengthened cleaning protocols nonetheless remain in place across the spectrum of accommodation. Among vacation rentals, the additional cleaning required by the pandemic took more time and material, pushing up guest costs.

“When the world opened up again, the cleaning requirements had to be improved,” said Joseph DiTomaso, Founder and CEO of All bedrooms, a vacation rental market analysis company, which found that cleaning costs had increased since 2017, but accelerated after October 2020, when travel started to rebound. “It’s an additional cost that is passed on. “