Hotels have finally gone too far when it comes to parking fees.
More properties charge their guests for parking; the fees are higher than they’ve ever been — and sometimes, hotels even charge guests who don’t have a car.
I’m not kidding. 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. I’ll have a few more parking fee stories in a minute. But first, let’s find out how bad they’ve gotten — and what’s behind the rise in these fees.
How much do hotels charge for parking?
The average hotel parking fee is $44 a night, according to research by ResortFeeChecker.com. The site has a database of over 10,000 properties, of which about 1,100 disclose 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. Five hotels in Manhattan are part of what I 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 has no historical data, there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that more hotels charge parking fees than ever.
Why are hotel parking 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 various factors. They include increased land costs, inflation, and higher parking facility costs.
The economics of parking are also shifting. More guests are arriving without a car, thanks to ridesharing and mass transit options.
“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 only added parking charges to their guest folios after verifying they came by car. But the parking fees became required somewhere along the line, whether you drove there or not.
Hotels employ the same logic as 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. You could have used the parking spot, but you didn’t.
Are mandatory parking fees the new resort fees?
In 2024, don’t expect your hotel to bother asking you if you are parking your car at the hotel. You may see a charge on your 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 become a rich new revenue source for hotels. Maybe mandatory parking fees are the new resort fees.
Guests can fight these parking fees and win.
As far as hotel fees go, most hotel guests feel mandatory parking fees are laughably absurd. They’re right up there on a list of the worst hotel fees, followed by energy surcharges (now illegal) and resort fees (soon to be illegal).
But there’s good news for any hotel guest with a mandatory parking fee. You can fight the charge and win.
If you start to think 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 your room, whether or not you brought your dog. Maybe they’ll try that next?
Guests should not tolerate it. If mandatory parking fees are unfair, you should refuse to pay them. You should also not give your future business to any hotel that added a parking fee to your bill without your consent. Otherwise, parking fees could become the following hotel resort fees.
Elliott’s tips for fighting a hotel parking fee.
You don’t have to pay a mandatory parking fee the next time you stay in a hotel unless you want to use the hotel’s parking lot.
Read the fine print very carefully.
Some hotels will disclose parking fees before you check-in. You’ll also find them on the form you sign at check-in and the electronic folio on your in-room TV. Make sure you ask the clerk about parking fees when you check-in. Carefully review your bill at check-out time and say something if you see a parking fee.
Don’t wait to resolve this.
The sooner you say something, the better. Ask the hotel receptionist to remove the charge. If that doesn’t work, politely ask to speak with a manager. If that fails, write to the hotel’s owner or hotel chain to request it to undo the unwanted parking charge.
Dispute the charge on your credit card.
The Fair Credit Billing Act allows you to dispute a credit card charge for goods or services you didn’t pay for. Contact your bank or credit card company and explain that your hotel charged you for parking when you didn’t park a car at the hotel.
Written by: Christopher Elliott
Christopher Elliott is an author, consumer advocate, and journalist. He founded Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit organization that helps solve consumer problems. He publishes Elliott Confidential, a travel newsletter, and the Elliott Report, a news site about customer service. If you need help with a consumer problem, you can reach him here or email him at chris@elliott.org.
