Parking rates may be the next line crossed by hotels trying to nickel and dime (say dollar and C-note) travelers.
More properties are charging their guests for parking, the rates are higher than they’ve ever been — and sometimes, hotels even charge guests who don’t have a car.
This is not a joke. When Sira Mas checked into a boutique hotel in Chicago recently, she found a $25 per night fee on her bill for parking. But she didn’t have a car.
“Although the hotel staff appeared empathetic, they clarified that the parking fee was a mandatory expense for every visitor,” says Mas, who works for an e-commerce company in Spain. She says she appealed to a manager, who agreed to remove the parking fee.
Hers is not an isolated incident. But first, a look at how bad they’ve gotten — and what’s behind the rise in these fees.
Parking Rates: What Guests Pay
The average hotel parking rate is $44 a night, according to research by ResortFeeChecker.com. The site has a database of more than 10,000 properties, of which about 1,100 disclose their parking fees.
The most expensive cities for hotel parking are New York, San Francisco and Chicago, says Randy Greencorn, publisher of ResortFeeChecker.com. “Each of these cities charges an average parking rate in excess of $60 per night,” he says.
In New York, parking fees can exceed $100 a night. The Pierre and Hyatt Centric Times Square both charge $105 a night. There are five hotels in Manhattan that are part of what I like to call the Parking Fee Century Club. The Westin New York Grand Central, Embassy Suites by Hilton New York Manhattan Times Square and Millennium Hilton New York One UN Plaza round out the list.
It’s harder to establish that parking fees are on the rise. Although ResortFeeChecker.com doesn’t have any historical data, there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that more hotels than ever are charging parking fees.
Parking Rates: Why are Fees Increasing?
Parking insiders say the rise in hotel parking fees — and hotels’ insistence on charging a fee even if you’re not parking a car — is driven by a variety of factors. They include increased land costs, inflation, and higher costs of maintaining a parking facility.
The economics of parking are also shifting. Thanks to ridesharing and mass transit options, more guests are arriving without a car.
“Parking fees can account for up to 20 percent of a hotel’s total revenue,” explains Greg Bessoni, general manager of Parkingaccess.com, a site that sells airport parking. “So having fewer guests with cars can affect their bottom line.”
But how did optional parking fees become mandatory? For years, hotels have added parking charges to all of their guest folios only after verifying they came by car. But somewhere along the line, the parking fees became required — whether you drove there or not.
Hotels employed the same logic as they did with resort fees, the mandatory charges added to your hotel room after the hotel quotes a price. (In other words, a hotel will quote you a room rate of $150 but then add a mandatory $25 per night resort fee, regardless of whether you use the resort amenities.)
Hotels are charging a mandatory parking fee using the same reasoning. The guest could have used the parking spot, but didn’t. Oh well.
Mandatory Parking: The Newest Resort Fees?
In 2024, hotel guests should not expect their hotel to bother asking whether they are parking a car at the hotel. They may simply see a charge on the bill.
Sam Girach did when he stayed at a hotel in Los Angeles.
“Although I didn’t have a car, I was surprised to find a parking charge on my bill at the end of my stay,” says Girach, a game designer from Skeffington, England. “When I enquired about it, the front desk explained that it was a mandatory fee for all guests — whether they had a vehicle or not.”
But Girach felt that was unfair, so he decided to fight the charge.
“After some negotiation, they finally agreed and removed the charge from my bill,” he says. “This experience made me wonder why hotels are increasingly charging for parking, even when guests don’t use the service.”
Maybe Girach has seen the future. While mandatory hotel resort fees may be on their way out, thanks to proposed new federal regulations, mandatory parking fees may turn into a rich new source of revenue for hotels. Maybe mandatory parking fees are the new resort fees.
Winning the Parking Fee War
As far as hotel fees go, most hotel guests feel mandatory parking rates and fees are laughably absurd. They’re right up there on a list of the worst hotel fees next to energy surcharges (now illegal) and resort fees (soon to be illegal).
But there’s good news for any hotel guest hit by a mandatory parking rate fee. They can fight the charge and win.
When thinking about the logic behind the latest parking fee, the absurdity comes into focus. Charging a mandatory parking fee makes about as much sense as adding a mandatory pet fee to a room, whether or not a dog is involved. Maybe they’ll try that next?
Guests should not tolerate it. If mandatory parking fees feel unfair, then they should refuse to pay them. They can choose as well not give their future business to any hotel that adds a parking fee to the bill without their consent. Otherwise, parking fees could become the next hotel resort fees.
Hotel guests need not pay the mandatory parking fee the next time they stay in a hotel — unless, of course, they actually do want to use the hotel’s parking lot.
Parking Fees
Some hotels will disclose parking fees before check in or on the form signed at check-in and on the electronic folio on the in-room TV. Guests should make sure they ask the reception desk about parking fees upon check in and be careful to review the bill at check-out – and say something if they see a parking fee. The sooner an objection is raised, the better. The hotel receptionist should be asked to remove the charge. If that doesn’t work, a polite summoning of the manager is in line. If that fails, they may want to contact the hotel’s owner or hotel chain in writing to request it to undo the unwanted parking charge.
Parking Rates: Credit Card Dispute
The Fair Credit Billing Act allows consumers to dispute a credit card charge for goods or services you didn’t pay for. Travelers can contact their bank or credit card company and explain the errant hotel charge for parking – especially when they did not even have car at the hotel.
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