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Marriott has taken a lot of heat for being less than transparent when it comes to resort fees. Travelers who find a room rate that fits their budget are routinely surprised to see the all-in price jump 10%, 15%, 20%, or even more once the taxes and fees are included on the final booking page.
While those pesky resort fees aren't going away, Marriott has recently added a search option that allows customers to search for rooms and view the total price during the search process, instead of at the very end of the booking process.
Booking on the Marriott Website
Here is how it works. Let's say that you are looking to make a quick trip to Las Vegas. When searching for room availability on Marriott's website, the search results present this way:
You can see that the regular rate is $300/night above. However, once you select the room and begin the checkout process, the price increases rather dramatically.
In this case, there are additional taxes and fees that increase the final price of the room by 28%. That's a big enough increase to burden any budget, and this has never been a welcome surprise to Marriott customers.
“Show Rates With Taxes and All Fees”
As first pointed out by God Save The Points, Marriott recently introduced a new feature that brings transparency to the booking process. There is now an easy option to view actual room rates that include all taxes and fees.
If you run the same search as we did above for a hotel room in Las Vegas, Marriott now offers a button that allows you to see the total price of the room in the search results. Check this box and you get the final room price, right on the search results page!
This also works for a general search where you get a long list of multiple properties. Just check this new “show all rates with taxes and fees” button and you will get a comprehensive list of properties with the all-in prices. This makes comparing properties much easier!
This new feature should avoid some of the stress and frustration that comes from finding out late in the search process that the actual price of your desired room is much more than you planned for. While all hotels have taxes, some of the Marriott resort fees can be as high as $95 per day. While those resort fees aren't going anywhere anytime soon, at least you'll know upfront what you'll be paying.
Booking on the Marriott Bonvoy App
This same feature is available on the most up-to-date version of the Marriott Bonvoy app. Once you start your search, you can click on the filter button (in red below).
That filter menu will allow you to select the option “Show rates with taxes and all fees”.
Our Take
More transparency is always a win for the customer, and Marriott has done a nice job adding this new feature. While this feature is not available for award bookings—which can still come with taxes and fees—this time-saving option is nice for considering paid bookings. It's especially nice for those of us who may be doing multiple aspirational searches during these tough travel times!
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