How to see resort fees when booking IHG stays
Most travelers don't like to pay resort fees on their stays. Luckily, some hotel loyalty programs, including World of Hyatt and Hilton Honors, waive resort fees on award stays. World of Hyatt also waives resort fees on paid stays for its top-tier Globalist members.
But, even if you can't use hotel points or elite status to avoid resort fees, you can decide not to stay at properties that levy these fees. However, as Traveling For Miles wrote about last week, some travelers might not see these fees when booking stays with IHG One Rewards.
Luckily, there's an easy way to ensure you see resort fees displayed when booking IHG stays. In this post, I'll explain how.
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How to see resort fees when booking paid IHG stays
Let's consider a stay in New York City as an example since IHG has several hotels in New York that charge per-night amenity fees. Log in to your IHG account and start your search as usual.
Once you click "Search," you'll see a listing of hotels with the amenity fee clearly listed under the nightly rate.
If you select a hotel, you'll see the rooms you could book. Again, each room type shows the amenity fee under the room rate.
If you click "View Prices" and navigate through a few screens to pick a specific rate, you'll reach the final page where you can pay and complete your reservation. On this page, you'll see additional charges of $40.17 and taxes of $74.94.
You can expand these fields to see that the additional charges are indeed the amenity fee and that the taxes include state tax, city tax and an occupancy fee.
It's easy to see whether a hotel levies a resort or amenity fee from the initial results page. So, you can avoid even considering these hotels if you wish.
Related: What is IHG One Rewards elite status worth?
How to see resort fees when booking IHG award stays
It's also easy to avoid resort and amenity fees when redeeming IHG points. Here's the results page if I display the price in points for the same stay. As you can see, the amenity fee is displayed on this page under the nightly points rate for properties that levy such a fee.
If you select a hotel with an amenity fee, you won't see the fee displayed on the room selection page.
But on the final page, before completing your reservation, you'll see a field for "Additional charges."
If you expand the field for additional charges, you'll see the $40.17 amenity fee.
IHG could make the amenity fee clearer on this final booking page. For example, IHG could list the amenity fee amount directly next to the additional charges field instead of forcing guests to expand the field to see it. And IHG should list the total charges in this example as 84,000 points plus $40.17, as this would be the total charge the guest bears.
Related: Hotel resort fees are out of control and need to end now
Why you might miss resort fees when booking IHG stays
So far, you might wonder why we're writing this post. Although the final page before completing an award stay should clearly show the amenity fee, potential guests could see the amenity fee on the initial results page before selecting that hotel.
However, if you click the "Show prices with taxes and fees" box on the results page, you might not notice the amenity fee at properties that charge it. I tend to check this box when searching for paid stays, as I'm primarily interested in the total cost of my stay.
I think it's fine for IHG not to list the amenity fee separately on the results page for paid stays if you opt to show prices with taxes and fees.
But the problem comes when you switch to displaying points rates and check the "Show prices with taxes and fees" box. When this box is checked, the results page shows the points you'll need to redeem but not the amenity fee. The results page even says taxes and fees are included, which doesn't apply to the amenity fee.
Of course, you'll still see the amenity fee listed if you expand the additional charges field on the final page before confirming your award stay. And you'll also see this fee if you check the rate details for your stay.
So, although the amenity fee might not be clearly stated throughout some of the booking process, it's easy to find once you know where to look. Unfortunately, travelers who don't frequently book IHG stays may miss seeing the amenity fee and be surprised by this charge at the hotel.
Bottom line
The easiest way to avoid staying at IHG hotels that levy resort or amenity fees is by not checking the "Show prices with taxes and fees" box and selecting a property for which these fees don't appear in the search results.
I also recommend checking the rate details page before booking, as this page will show any extra fees you'll need to pay, the nightly rate breakdown and the cancellation policy. Doing so lets you see most of the important information about your stay in one place before you book.
Related: The 19 best IHG hotels in the world
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