A resort fee --- a trick charge hotels have been using in recent years to extract additional money from guests --- are finally facing legal action, notes Grumpy Editor.
The fee nicks overnight guests to pay for additional services such as wi-fi, pool and gym access even when not used.
It’s a practice that most Las Vegas Strip casinos, for example, employ, sending unsuspecting guests home grumbling.
Nebraska Atty. Gen. Doug Peterson filed a lawsuit against Hilton Hotels Corp. for its use of resort fees which he terms can “deceive and mislead consumers.”
The lawsuit accused Hilton of hiding the “true price” of hotel rooms to boost profits and seeks to force Hilton to advertise “true prices of its hotel rooms,” pay civil penalties and provide monetary relief to consumers who have been charged.
Peterson pointed out at least 78 Hilton properties in the U.S. charge resort fees ranging from $15 to $45 per room per night.
IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...
QUIET PERIOD IN WASHINGTON. Look for fewer Washington, D.C. datelines over the next few weeks. House and Senate members are on vacation until Sept. 9.
HOME OWNERSHIP ACTIVITY DIPS. Home ownership in the U.S. fell for the second straight quarter — to 64.1 percent in the April-June period, from 64.2 percent in the first quarter, down from 64.3 percent in the 2018 second quarter.
HEAT WAVE PUTS EUROPE IN A SWEAT. A heat wave in Europe late last week set records with 101 degrees in Cambridge, England; 109 degrees in Paris, 107 degrees in Lingen, Germany and 104 degrees in Eindhoven, Netherlands, as examples.
$100 SANDWICH DEBUTS IN LAS VEGAS. A restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip now offers a sandwich named for Howard Hughes — at $100. It includes roast beef brisket and prime rib, topped with a truffle sauce. This compares with earlier times when a casino offered a full dinner plus show for a modest $4.99.
NEWSPAPER BUILDING TO BECOME POLICE HEADQUARTERS. The city of Reno, Nev. plans to buy the Reno Gazette Journal building on seven acres for $7 million for use as its police headquarters. The newspaper will settle in a new location that Executive Editor Brian Duggan says "will better suit our news organization's digital future.”
NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION HITS LOW. U.S. newspaper circulation, in a 2018 tally, reached its lowest level since 1940. Total daily print/digital circulation was an estimated 28.6 million with 30.8 million for Sunday, down 8 percent and 9 percent, respectively, from the previous year, according to Pew Research Center’s analysis of Alliance for Audited Media data.
BBC SHORTENS CLIMATE DOOMSDAY COUNTDOWN. British Broadcasting Corp., in a climate doomsday countdown, claimed there could be as little as 18 months remaining to “save the planet” from a “global heating crisis.”
TV NEWS AUDIENCE DECLINES. A new survey finds local TV news audience last year dropped 10 percent for morning news and 14 percent for late night and evening news from the prior year.
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