Q&A
Consumer protection against junk fees in hotels
0:42:21
·
105 sec
Council Member Julie Menin and DCWP representatives discuss the agency's recommendation to add consumer protections against junk fees, such as resort and amenity fees, in the hotel licensing bill.
- Junk fees are a common complaint from consumers about hotels
- Issues include unexpected resort fees and refusal to refund deposits
- DCWP suggests including additional consumer protections and transparency measures in the licensing regime
Julie Menin
0:42:21
I'm really interested in the portion of your testimony where you recommend adding protection for consumers against junk fees.
0:42:28
What you're saying are these resort and amenity fees.
0:42:31
Could you speak a little bit more about that, please?
Vilda Vera Mayuga
0:42:36
Thank you, Sherry.
0:42:36
I am really glad you caught on that, and it's certainly something we've been seeing.
0:42:41
I'm gonna have our deputy general counsel, Melissa.
0:42:43
I mean, yeah, trying to get into a little bit more detail there.
Melissa Iachan
0:42:45
Thank you, commissioner, and good morning, council member.
0:42:50
That is definitely one of the most frequent complaints that we are hearing from consumers who call in and submit complaints about hotels.
0:42:58
Whether it is someone who says I never knew there was a resort fee and they charged it.
0:43:03
I wasn't allowed to opt out even if I didn't use any of the resort amenities or whether it's somebody who was required to put a deposit down.
0:43:12
And then the hotel refused to refund the deposit, saying it was keeping it for amenities fees or resort fees.
0:43:20
Junk fees are a problem throughout many industries, but especially the travel in metallity industry and hotels have really, really taken advantage of this.
0:43:29
We see this and this really is the number one pattern that we note with consumer complaints.
0:43:35
So while we are here discussing this industry and licensing this industry for the first time as a city.
0:43:42
We do as the Consumer Protection Agency really want to shed light on the possibilities that we can include some additional consumer protections within this licensing regime to add transparency to this issue.
Julie Menin
0:43:58
Fantastic.
0:43:58
I think that is wonderful.
0:43:59
So I'm not gonna open it up to my colleagues for questions.
0:44:05
Custom member brewer.
