Today is just a small example of some of the funny hotel charges we incurred while in Australia.
First, I find whether in the States or in Australia, if a hotel charges you for internet access, it will suck. I almost always have that issue when staying at an Embassy Suites for work. Don’t nickle and dime me on internet especially if you can’t get some blazing speeds.
Second, as usual when you eat in a hotel, they always charge you crazy prices. I have learned how to order ala carte or find a coffee shop near the hotel to save money. However, my wife had her first encounter with Vegemite and I can be sure there probably won’t be a second.
GST, or as we in the states like to call sales tax. But of course where I live it is 6.5%. There it is 10%. However, counties and cities in the US add a whole bunch of taxes to hotel stays so as far as overcharging goes, I think we have the Aussies on that.
Sunday/Holiday upcharge. OK to be honest this wasn’t at a hotel but rather a restaurant. See image below:
I might be able to see a Public Holiday Surcharge but a Sunday one. Does everyone get paid time and a half on Sundays? It’s not like they couldn’t have a day off another day of the week.
Finally the biggest real peeve of mine was the surcharge for using a credit card versus cash or ATM. I get it at a small retailer but a HOTEL? This was a first. I would prefer you surcharge everyone and then tell the people who pay cash, you will give them a discount. I know it is the same but it seems a bit more honest.
So any crazy surcharges any of you encountered when traveling?
Comments
75 responses to “Australian Hotel Bill Extra Charges”
I live in California, so everything is taxes and sometimes more than once. Crazy I tell you. What are you going to do? If you want to travel you just suck it up. Bugger.
Have a terrific day. 🙂
In California they tax the tax
So, how do you reserve the room if not a CC? What tripe. I am so glad my hotel membership takes care of all the dumb stuff. Ugh.
And what is so special about Sunday?
You can reserve it with a credit card but they tell you at check out if you don’t use cash or ATM that they will charge an extra x%
I learned the hard way from staying in big cities that it can cost as almost as much to have your car spend the night there.
Believe it or not – our small village uses the extra lodging tax to pay for our 4th July firework show. Stay here and we will celebrate it later.
At least your town uses it for something useful.
Sunday is double time I think. It used to be when I worked for a mining company on a 7 day shift roster. Paid internet should be top quality or you shouldn’t have to pay in my opinion. They really know how to rip people off. It’s a wonder they don’t have a water meter & electricity meter installed in every room too. To save money take your own jar of Vegemite is the best option.
We stayed at a hotel in Hobart recently & they took my credit card details to cover any “incidentals” in case we took stuff from the mini-bar, the chocolates etc & left without paying for them. That sort of stuff was complimentary once. We used none of that stuff & they didn’t have to charge anything to my credit card. When I checked my credit card balance on Netbank recently the hotel had hit me up for a $2 credit card surcharge!!! I didn’t pay for anything with it!!!
I hope you got them to remove it.
I get it about Sunday historically when people never got days off. But in this day and age if you get two days off and they happen to be Monday and Tuesday, you shouldn’t get a bonus for working Sunday. Otherwise 90% of the people would want Friday and Saturday off and work the rest of the week. I would.
interesting…but at least you got to go to Australia!! 🙂 (My bad, I didn’t even know you went!)
Good paying attention..haha
I like the “Are You Being Served” caption. two thumbs up.
Used to love reruns of that show.
$300 for one night, what a bargain! You could have stayed in my burrow for 50 bucks. It includes all the native grasses you could eat.
No wine gums and chocolate?
For you, sure! But not for Wombies. They’d eat me out of house & home.
True true.
In my limited travels I have found in many cases that a mid range motel is nicer and gives better service than some of the more expensive ones. If they charge for internet..I don’t stay there. I won’t be staying in any for awhile now because most of them don’t allow pets and I ain’t leavin’ Molly at home.
When I travel for work i tend to stay at the business hotels. Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton, Courtyard so they tend to have everything I need at a reasonable price. Some of my coworkers stay at Marriott’s etc and they wonder why they can’t come under budget every year.
BTW was there anything about Australia that you liked? 🙂
95% of everything else. But when you live in a country you only look at the humor centrically. This gave me an opportunity to make fun of someone else for a change.
That must be nice. I have to make fun of the same old people all the time.
You need more visitors
Padded bills are one of my extreme dislikes when it comes to traveling abroad. You can’t escape it, you just have to shake your wallet out until you return home.
I recall, after a pleasant-yet-expensive vacation to the Bahamas, how happy I was to get back in the U.S. where I could actually buy a dollar-bag of chips without having to pay 5 bucks plus tip three people just to get them. I’ll never forget that joy and exhilaration. 🙂
I want to see a picture of when they braided your hair on the beach.
I thought you would rather hear the story of how I got my groove back.
None of us want to hear a story about your groove, George. 🙂
Stella is the only one I am interested in
Can’t say I have much experience with padded bills. You have to admit you did make them work on a Sunday though… I think you should have stayed with Binky… Wonder what his Sunday charge would have been…?
J-Dotson
Binky is in Canada haha
But I have burrows all over the world. Wombtel 8.
They’ll leave the bug light on for you.
Don’t you love these! As someone who has spent 20 years on the road I got use to them, now I just check to make certain they haven’t double dipped. My husband is from the Bahamas, we travel there frequently to visit his family and always stay at a hotel. All hotels there charge a ‘resort fee’, even if they are not a resort. That fee is anywhere from $25 to $50 per night. Add their very high taxes and it gets very pricey.
Resort fees are probably my biggest pet peeve. Just throw it in the price and let me judge based on real info.
This is why I just sleep up in a tree most of the time.
Seriously though… seems kind of lame. Annabelle and I didn’t even charge extra for credit and we were about as small-time as it gets (although the ‘merchant services’ contract was one of the things that wound up biting the hardest).
🙂
Should have went with Square.
This is a matter I am all too familiar with. The internet is always the worst!
Frustrating it is.
I can’t say we’ve really had any obnoxious surcharges in hotels, but there are some hotels we’ll definitely stay away from… like the Motel 6 where we found little hairs in the wash cloths…
ewwww
those charges do seem a bit excessive especially cause they were not explained prior to or while checking in.
They point it out but it is in the fine print.
Don’t forget the “and we have to look at your face” charge!
That’s a discount
Blame our friggin Prime minister for most of that. Fair Work Australia (friggin union!!!!!) have made it compulsory for restaurant staff to be paid extra on Sundays and Public Holidays resulting in most restaurants not opening on those days. Banks charge high fees for businesses to use credit cards which they kindly handball to the customer. The Prime Minister is considering raising the GST. Madness I say, madness. Now you know why Aussies don’t tip 😉
I figured everyone embraced the socialist agenda down there..haha
Don’t get me started !!!!
Oh but on a good note Consumer Affairs are currently looking into the ridiculously high charges for internet services in hotels.
Good $10 a day is all they should charge.
The sucker charge
I like that one 🙂 lol
Some of those charges
are bordering on the
wicked, and I don’t mean
great either 🙁 lol
A nice offering this one 🙂
Plenty of sucker charges when you vacation. Thanks
well well well… your people over charged me ridiculously for car hire and hotels in the US, now..pay back… he he and he!
Yes but I am American so it is funnier to make fun of others.
Upcharge on Sunday’s and public holidays? Wow. I hope that wasn’t at McDonald’s.
Big place down there was 7/11 and subway. They were everywhere.
Now I remember why I got a 5th wheel…lol…Those prices are outrageous!
Better than a 3rd wheel.
Buying bread from a man in Brussels
He was six foot four and full of muscle
I said, “Do you speak-a my language?”
He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich
And he said, “THAT WILL BE $20!”
I always used to think he was saying “gave me a bit of a sandwich”
…and let you crash on his couch for a month and steal his beer from the fridge. What a guy.
I have found traveling in the USA that cheap motels often include Internet. It ain’t great but hey. The posh hotels hit you $20 a day for it and it ain’t great either.
The trick to enjoying vegemite is to spread it very thin! Vegemite over mozarella cheese is actually quite tasty.
Thin as in so thin it isn’t on the bread.
Ouch. Brutal. That’s why package travel deals are sometime better.
You would think but with those they tend to forget to add the daily resort fee until after you are there.
Here in Germany prices are fairly reasonable for food when one goes out to eat. They get you on the drinks. .5 liter beer is 3.50 euros. If I go to the store that same beer is .80 cents!
I could have drank 4.375 beers for that price… though those days are way behind me and never lasted long to begin with. 5 or 6 times with a hangover was enough for one lifetime.
Same in the US. You would be hard pressed to even get a Bud Light for under $4 when out versus a little more than $1 at the store.
It’s always those hidden charges that get ya.
Darn them!!
well in reality this whole notion of pay per service stems from capitalism..and who is the biggest capitalist promoter and enforcer? the US.. we have no one to blame but ourselves.. hahahha
Ourselves? You live in Australia.
If you don’t act like an adult, can you get out of the surcharge? I’m sure throwing a tantrum would do the trick!
No, they just threatened to call the cops
You went to Australia! I take a little time off from blogging and this is the stuff I miss. Wow! I’m sure it was amazing…pricey, but amazing!
Just because you take time off from blogging doesn’t mean you have to take time off from MY blog.
Touche, green haired boy.
Of all the taxes in Australia, I think the “Australian syntax” is the worst. hee hee!