Planning your summer vacation? Buyer beware.
Hotels, rental cars, airplanes, cruise ships...things that make vacations and sometimes make you pay more with surprise charges.
"Oh yeah the hotel always hits you. Surcharges, room taxes, everything you can think of."
Erica Duecy of Fodor's travel guide tells us in the last five years, extra hotel fees have risen 5-fold...one of the most common is the resort fee.
"So you may be charged for a fitness room or business center whether or not you use those centers."
"Also, you may be charged if you check into your room early or even if you depart early, even for an emergency. Be sure to ask whether you will be penalized for an early arrival or departure."
"Some hotels are actually charging 50 dollars or even higher up to a whole night's stay for leaving early."
Before you reach for your wallet, know that room service and house keeping gratuities are more frequently already added in.
"And this could be 30 dollars a day so that could be pretty substantial."
"I always add a little something."
"So you're paying twice?"
"Yeah I guess so."
Renting a car at the airport is another way to be socked with extra fees.
In some locations, as much as 10 percent of the cost of the rental, take a taxi to your destination and rent your car in town.
While you may expect the airlines to hit you with a fuel surcharge, know that cruise ships are doing it too.
Sometimes five dollars per person per day.
Your best defense against hidden fees?
"Call ahead. Sometimes Orlando has a fee that Fairmont, West Virginia doesn't."
