Top 5 Travel Rip-Offs

When we travel we are largely at the mercy of the companies we choose to do business with. Once you have booked your airline ticket or reserved your hotel room, you are pretty much locked in to flying with that airline and staying in that hotel… And they know it. Unscrupulous companies will use this fact to slip in hidden, unexpected, or unadvertised fees.

Oh, you want to bring luggage on your vacation? That’s going to cost you. Did you want to be able to use the internet to check email or facebook once per day? That’s going to cost you. Were you planning on eating food on your trip? Yep, that’s going to cost you.

Below are the top 5 travel rip-offs that frustrate travelers everywhere.

1. Airline Luggage Check Fees

Over the years, most airlines have started charging fees for checking luggage to offset rising fuel costs. Most airlines allow one carry-on bag and one “personal item” to be brought on the plane for free. Each checked bag, depending upon the size, may cost between $25 and $120. If you want to check more than three bags, it could cost you even more. Maybe this is a crazy statement, but most people need to bring stuff with them when they travel, so these “optional” fees aren’t actually optional at all. The airlines know that this is a fee that almost every passenger will have to pay. In fact, many flights earn more money from the luggage costs than on the actual costs of the airline ticket. This is a huge travel rip-off that should be modified. And this doesn’t even include the onerous airline liquid restrictions.

2. Rental Car Fees and Insurance

Rental car companies advertise these unbelievable rental car prices that really are too good to be true. Consumers always see the car advertised for $9 per day or lower, but rarely does any customer actually receive the advertised price. After rental car companies have added airport fees and taxes, a $9 per day rental quickly morphs into a $30 per day rental.

If drivers require rental insurance from the rental car company, they quickly learn that daily costs for insurance is as expensive as the daily rental costs. Drivers walk away from the counter in frustration because their $9 per day rental is in reality a $60 per day rental. This is one of the biggest misconceptions and rip-offs in the travel industry.

3. Hotel Mini-Bars

Hotel mini-bars should be off-limits unless there is an emergency. Hotels count on people not wanting to go to a local grocery store while on vacation and buy reasonably priced snacks and water. Hotels may pay $0.50 or less for a bottle of water and charge the hotel guest $5 for the “convenience.” The fact is, most guests would not waste a gallon of gas to travel to a local store and purchase reasonably priced snacks, and the hotels know this. Most people would agree that a 1000% profit margin on water is a complete rip-off.

4. Wi-Fi Charges at Hotels

Business hotels know their customers need Wi-Fi. In fact, in today’s world with social media, even leisure travelers need Wi-Fi. Why would hotels charge between $4.95 per day and $14.95 per day for a convenience that most people need? Customers only pay $30 per month, in most instances, for high speed Internet at home, and hotels don’t pay much more. Every daily hotel Wi-Fi charge is pure, additional, rip-off profit.

Some hotels are more compassionate and only charge a one-time fee for access for an entire stay, but hopefully someday soon free wi-fi will be the standard (like having a color TV with cable in every room) rather than an unexpected surprise.

5. Resort Fees

Resorts lure customers into their luxurious properties with low nightly rates, and then surprise guests with resort fees when they get to the check in desk. When guests make reservations, most are unaware of the resort fees because it is mentioned in passing or it is buried in the fine print. If reservations are made in advance, only the advertised nightly rates will appear on the bill. The rip-off comes in to play because guests cannot decline to use the services, so they must pay the fee or they won’t be allowed to stay. Since guests cannot opt out of resort fees, why not just advertise the price with resort fees included? The answer is simple, if you expected to pay the resort fee, you might stay somewhere else. This practice is dishonest, and a complete rip-off.