If you’re a regular traveler to a large market like Atlantic City or Las Vegas, and particularly if you hotel hop because of the limited lengths of comp night offers, a bit of extra planning is sometimes required to keep track of the various resort fees and incidental holds, or deposits, that each property will place on your credit card.
While some players are lucky enough to get resort fees waived thanks to Caesars Diamond status, or having strong enough comps to either get them waived upfront or covered by comp dollars, not all of us are in this situation every time. These fees, as well as the deposits, do evolve over time, so keeping up can be challenging.
But a simple, yet effective tip from my friend Gabor can help guide you to the information for each property. All you have to do is go to Expedia.
Towards the bottom of a hotel listing, they have an Important Information section that lists both the resort fee and the deposit/incidental hold. If you’re not familiar with these charges, here’s a quick summary:
- Resort fees are effectively add-on fees to the hotel rate and must be paid if not waived or comped. Expedia lists what’s provided for the resort fee; hotels are increasingly going this route to lower their rates on comparison sites and to reduce the commissions they pay as these fees tend to be excluded.
- Deposits, on the other hands, are holds placed, either per day or per stay, that are lifted as long as there’s no damage to the room and no room charges made. Holds can stay in place for days or even a week or two after you check out, but as long as there’s no issues will ultimately be released.
Since many people traveling are juggling other charges and spend, it’s helpful to know what sorts of credit card holds/charges should be expected so they can factor it into the math of what to expect on their cards.
I personally use a travel card dedicated for travel so my everyday bills don’t get impacted, but that card doesn’t have an enormous limit so it means being good with planning (but also discourages overspending, so there’s a method to the madness).
