Making money
Congress is considering ways to get
rid of the often impenetrable and hid-
den resort fee, “the most hated fee
in travel,” said David Oliver in USA
Today. A House bill would “force
companies to more accurately reflect
the price of hotel rooms” by including
those mandatory fees that resorts fre-
quently tack on to the end of the bill.
Those charges—variously called resort
fees, destination fees, or facility fees—
“include a bundle of services guests
have come to expect during a hotel
stay,” such as Wi-Fi and access to the
pool and gym. In some locations, such
as Las Vegas, the surcharge can rou-
tinely cost upwards of $50 per night. Unfortunately, many hotel
websites, as well as third-party sites such as Priceline and Ex-
pedia, only prominently display the base room prices in search
results. The surcharge is hidden in later pages or appears only in
much-smaller print.In addition to hotels, cruise lines have become notorious for
these kinds of sneaky mandatory add-ons, said Christopher
Elliott, also in USA Today. “Most of the major nonluxury cruise
lines automatically add anywhere between $11.50 and $16 a
day as a tip,” which isn’t often listed in cruise fares. There are
“room service” fees on Carnival and Royal Caribbean cruises.
There’s even a mandatory 20 percent gratuity slapped on Nor-wegian Cruise Lines’ “Free at Sea”
drinks package, which can add up
to $280 for two people on a week-
long cruise.Maybe you think you’re immune
from such fees because you don’t
take cruises, or because you “book
vacations at hotels that don’t have
a ton of amenities like pools and
spas and drinks with tiny umbrel-
las in them,” said Lisa Rowan in
Lifehacker.com. “Think again.
No one is immune!” This isn’t
really about extra services that a
fancy hotel might provide. A hotel
doesn’t have to have any resort-like features. The whole point is
just to lure you in with an attractive room rate, and then when
you see the total tab, to leave you thinking, “Oh, well. At least I
got a good price for the room.”As this bill winds its way through Congress, is there any way
around fees currently? asked Ann Carrns in The New York
Times. Well, some hotels, such as Hilton and Hyatt, do “waive
resort fees on rooms booked by using points earned in their
rewards programs,” although Marriott does not. “Travelers
who have ‘elite’ status at some loyalty programs may have the
fees waived as well.” Otherwise, the best way to avoid fees is to
double-check the final price of your room before you book.Resort fees: The travel industry’s hidden charges
BUSINESS 37
Ala
my
Las Vegas hotels are notorious for dreaded ‘resort fees.’The costly end of the SALT deduction
The 2017 tax law has cost homeowners a tril-
lion dollars, said Allan Sloan in Fortune. “That
massive number is the reduction in home
values caused” by the law’s cap on federal
deductions for state and local real estate and
income taxes at $10,000 a year, also known as
the SALT deduction. Moody’s chief economist
Mark Zandi calculated that home prices are
4 percent lower than they otherwise would be.
With the total value of U.S. homes at about
$26 trillion, that adds up to “a $1.04 trillion
setback for the nation’s homeowners.” As
you’d expect, “counties with high home prices
and high real estate taxes” are suffering the
biggest hit, but homeowners all over the coun-
try are affected. The worst hit are suburbs of
New York and Chicago, where prices would
be 10 to 11 percent higher without the cap.Student loan help from employers
Some companies are helping workers saddled
with student loan debt by matching loan
repayments with contributions to a 401(k),
said Anne Tergesen in The Wall Street Jour-
nal. Last year, health-technology company
Abbott pioneered a new approach by placing
5 percent of salary into the 401(k) of any U.S.
employees “who devote at least 2 percentof income to student loan payments.” But
Abbott is no longer alone in offering debt as-
sistance. “A growing number of companies
such as Kronos, Hulu, and HP have started
to pay a fixed amount—often $100 to $200 a
month—toward employees’ loans,” while oth-
ers now “allow employees to apply the value
of unused benefits, such as vacation time or
health insurance, to their loans.”Aftermath of the mortgage bust
The U.S. is still paying the costs of the early-
2000s mortgage bubble, said Keith Jurow in
MarketWatch.com. In the housing collapse
of the mid-2000s, “mortgage modifications
were rolled out to enable millions of delin-
quent homeowners to avoid having their
home foreclosed.” Some 8.7 million mortgage
holders got what were supposed to be perma-
nent modifications. Many of them, however,
defaulted again. Often, that led to another
modification, and yet another default. Mil-
lions of loans are now on their third modifica-
tion. The re-default rate on these after three
years “could be approaching 50 percent.”
If the housing market continues to weaken,
America’s big banks will face hard choices
about whether they should keep modifying
these loans to keep borrowers in their homes.What the experts say
Around the world,
journalists face the
risk of being shut
down, detained, or
murdered for uncov-
ering corruption or
for truthful reporting,
particularly those
living under authoritarian regimes. The
Committee to Protect Journalists (cpj.org)
works to safeguard press freedom and to
advocate for persecuted journalists. CPJ
diligently keeps records on its database
of journalist fatalities and imprisonments
and of violations of press freedom glob-
ally, as well as reports on threats to press
freedom. CPJ provides on-the-ground
emergency response for journalists who
are injured or forced to flee. It supports
diplomatic efforts, meets with government
officials, secures the release of imprisoned
journalists, and pushes for investigations,
convictions, and accountability in the
killings of journalists, including Jamal
Khashoggi, murdered by the Saudi gov-
ernment one year ago this month.Charity of the week
Each charity we feature has earned a
four-star overall rating from Charity
Navigator, which rates not-for-profit
organizations on the strength of their
finances, their governance practices,
and the transparency of their operations.
Four stars is the group’s highest rating.