California Notice To Vacate 2011: Fill & Download for Free

I visited with Koryo Tours in August 2011.The tour company held a mandatory briefing for tourists prior to our departure which covered safety, logistics and what to expect. There were 18 people in our tour, about half of whom were Americans, including American expats living in China. The rest were Australians, Swiss-Germans and UK citizens.Both Air Koryo and Air China fly to Pyongyang, but Air Koryo is definitely the more interesting flight to take. It is banned from European airspace because of safety concerns, but they kept telling us that Air Koryo has never had a crash. Their fleet consists mostly of older refurbished Soviet aircraft and these planes retain many of their old Soviet quirks, like open overhead storage spaces. (Thank God we didn't encounter turbulence!)I was seated in the rear of the aircraft with several North Koreans returning home from Beijing. They could be identified because they had already put on the Kim Il-Sung pins every North Korean is required to wear in public. After takeoff I pulled out my mini-laptop to backup some photographs I’d taken of Beijing and quickly noticed a lot of eyes gathered around me, watching. Evidently, computer technology is very interesting. About halfway through the flight, revolutionary music started blazing over the loudspeakers. A woman said (in English!) that we had entered the glorious paradise of Kim Il-Sung and about 45 minutes later, we landed in Pyongyang.In 2011 when I visited, cellphones, GPS devices, cameras with GPS, lenses longer than 300mm and radios were banned (though the lens rule wasn't enforced), so once we landed, customs officials went through our luggage with a fine-toothed comb and pulled out prohibited materials. They were kept at the airport and given back when we left. You were allowed to keep computers, tablets and mp3 players, but there was no internet to connect to then.Once we got through customs, our bus and the guides were waiting. They asked us for our passports, which they said were needed to process our visas. We didn’t get them back until we left. On the ride to our hotel (the Yanggakdo Hotel, aka “Tourist Alcatraz” because it is on an island in the middle of the Taedong River that you can't leave without permission), we were introduced to our guides. The thing that struck me on the ride into Pyongyang was how dark it was for a city of 3 million people. Our plane had been delayed so we arrived at dusk and could see a lot of people walking around,presumably going home from work in the dark. The great monuments and buildings are brightly lit, but the rest of the city was very dark.The Yanggakdo Hotel is huge, with lots of shops, restaurants, bars and entertainment venues, staffed by Chinese. The accommodation itself was 3 stars - not luxurious but fine. It’s an immense place. The main lobby had a restaurant, souvenir shop, food store and a bar. Downstairs from the main lobby was a karaoke lounge, another bar, meeting rooms and a recreational area. Despite what some may think, I never got the feeling we were bugged because: 1) It's extremely expensive, as well as time and labour consuming to do so; and 2) They don't really care what foreigners think, unless you're a visiting official.The views of Pyongyang from the hotel were breathtaking, but I had to massively overexpose my photos to get much detail at night because the city was so dark.You can see how long I had to keep the shutter open to get a photo: it was the amount of time it took a car to drive several blocks.Foggy morning on the next day.In Pyongyang, we spent most of our time visiting the landmark buildings and monuments. Pyongyang is much more affluent than the rest of the country and presents itself as a clean, attractive city, though I would imagine very dull to live in, especially if you're a foreign expat. There wasn’t much traffic or many people on the street and there is no advertising. The billboards are all propaganda.We visited the U.S.S. Pueblo which was captured by the North Koreans in 1968 and is docked in the Pot’ong River where it is used for tourist propaganda. The crew of 83 was held until the U.S. signed a statement saying that we were guilty of spying on the North Koreans.After that, we walked to Kim Il Sung Square and visited the Grand People's Study Hall (the DPRK's national library) where we dropped in on an English language course. While the Study Hall is presented as a place open to all Koreans, it was obvious from the look of the patrons that it was a place for the elite.Here, students are working on computers hooked up to the North Korean intranet called “Kwangmyong”. This is walled off from the larger World Wide Web and hosts only ideologically acceptable content.We saw the Arch of Triumph (modeled on the Paris monument, only bigger because everything has to be bigger in North Korea!); took a ride to the top of the Juche Tower; visited the Great Fatherland Liberation War (Korean War) Museum, which presents the Korean War from their side and took a ride on the Pyongyang Subway, the world’s deepest.Below is a wedding party. The Bride and Groom are posing in front of their nearest Kim Il Sung statue for photographs, after their wedding ceremony.One of the oddest museum visits we had was to the Transit Museum.One would think it would be a museum dedicated to transit (subways, trains, boats, etc.), but it’s actually a museum dedicated to all the times Kim Il Sung got on a train and went somewhere, or said something about a train, or pointed at a train.But it was at this museum we were exposed to one thing North Koreans do very, very well - creating dioramas. Part of the display below is painted and part of it is a model, but the line between one and the other is almost impossible to see from where you stood.Below is a diorama from the Great Fatherland Liberation Museum. The gun turret is a model, the men are painted. While it is a bit easier to see where the line is in the photograph, it was impossible to see in person. In their own way, they represented what visiting North Korea itself was like.One of the highlights of the trip was going to the heart of the Kim-cult. The Kumsusan Palace of the Sun is where Kim Il Sung (and now Kim Jong Il) lie in state, under glass. You have to dress up for the occasion. Nice slacks and ties were required for men and a nice dress (no pants!) for women. (The tour company told us to be bring appropriate clothes ahead of time.) No cameras allowed inside.After walking through several long hallways past well-dressed North Koreans (whom I presume got a day off from work to tour the Palace because of good work, or connections), we arrived in a room with marble walls and brass relief pictures showing North Koreans crying and convulsing in pain at the news of Kim Il Sung’s death. The local guides handed us small mp3 players which you held up to your ears that described the day that he died on how his death affected everyone.Then we came to a large statue of Kim Il Sung where we all took turns and bowed. The tour company warned us that this was going to be expected, and told us that those who couldn’t do it had to notify them in advance. All of us took turns bowing and then we moved on to a room that had a display of his accomplishments. Finally we got to the room where he lay. He is under glass, bathed in red lighting with the “Kim Il Sung Song” (North Korea’s unofficial national anthem) playing softly in the background. Here, we had to walk around him and bow once on each side. Despite myself, I was very moved by the whole thing. I had to remind myself that this was a man who ran a whole country like a religious cult and started a war that killed millions.After bowing to Kim, we went to a room where more trinkets and honours were displayed. I always tried to find anything from the U.S. or Canada and I did! Kim Il Sung received a Doctorate from Kensington University in Glendale California for Political Science. (Kensington University was a notorious diploma mill that was shut down by the State of California years ago.)Knowing that our cellphones were going to be confiscated, I had brought an iPod Touch so I had music to listen to while on some of the longer bus rides. Also on it were a couple TV shows downloaded from iTunes. While showing it to my guide I inadvertently played part of a show which showed a couple making out which (strangely enough) embarrassed me. But the guide asked if he could borrow the player for the evening. Reluctantly, I said yes - I didn’t want to get him or me into trouble. When I got it back the next day the battery had been totally drained. He must have watched everything on it.We visited the Martyr's Cemetery; Kim Il Sung's birthplace, the "Three Revolutions" Museums and several bookstores and restaurants (mostly catering to foreigners). We visited a Pyongyang park on their day off, when the locals often picnicked and played music and games. While walking along, a family was playing DPRK pop music on a cassette player, and asked us to dance with them. That felt a bit staged, as until then no one had just come up to us and asked us to participate in anything, so after we’d left the country I got onto YouTube and found numerous examples of this impromptu event from other tourists.Finally we got to the main course, for me at least! I came to North Korea primarily to see the Arirang Mass Games. A year earlier I’d watched a BBC documentary called “A State of Mind” which followed two schoolgirls who performed in the Games and had decided that I wanted to see it in person. The Games are a big propaganda show for the regime. About 100,000 people participate in each performance, including 20,000 school children that use books with coloured pages to form mosaics in the background. It is an hour and a half performance which tells the propagandized story of North Korea and its many accomplishments.Here is a clip I recorded of one from the scenes. This one celebrates Children. The background changes are signaled by a man with a flag behind us:It was spectacular, beyond anything I expected.We went rollercoaster riding at the Mangyongde Fun Fair, which was packed because of the Youth Day holiday. I tested how good North Korean safety standards were and somehow lived to tell you about it. (Please don’t tell me whether it was ballsy or stupid. I’m leaning toward the latter, but my number wasn’t up yet.)At the last minute, we were told that Pyongyang was going to stage a Youth Day Mass Dance, so we got on the bus and headed there. It’s a choreographed dance to the regime-praising pop music tunes we had all become familiar with by then.We drove about 100km north to Mt. Myohyang to visit the International Friendship Exhibition (which is a massive building cut into the side of a mountain to protect it in case the Americans bomb again) which houses all the gifts foreign leaders gave to Kim Il Sung, (where I found that Jimmy Carter had given Kim Il Sung a small pewter plate with the Presidential Seal on it.) This site was also considered holy. You had to take off your shoes and wear special slippers so you don’t scuff the floor. It was strange to see the names of so many dead dictators from countries that no longer exist (e.g., Ceausescu, Saddam, East Germany, Yugoslavia). While walking through the Exhibition, one of the guides and I had a discussion about the differences between how voting and elections work in the DPRK and how they work in Canada and the U.S. He had trouble grasping the idea of different political parties with different and often contradictory policies competing for our votes and thought it must all be really chaotic. It was a fascinating exchange.We also went south and saw Kaesong (the only major city that wasn't heavily bombed during the Korean War) and the DMZ. Kaesong has some interesting historical (pre-DPRK) paintings, statues and burial monuments. This part of the trip, which delved into more ancient Korean history, provided a nice break from the Kim cult.Here we are at the DMZ looking across to the Americans and South Koreans.Finally we visited a collective farm outside of Pyongyang.Where we were supposed to have met a typical farmer and see how they lived (ahem!)What's it like to visit North Korea? Well, you'll be under the watchful eye and control of the guides. The guides we had were very nice, albeit distant people. Being a guide is a dream job in the DPRK because the money they make from hard currency tips from tourists gives them access to items most North Koreans can't buy. They seemed to truly enjoy our company and, within limits, were curious about our lives. However, it's important to know that when the guides are done for the day, you are taken to your hotel and you aren’t allowed to leave. You will never be able to wander around on your own. The tour was very busy all the time, so the only downtime we got during the day was on the bus rides. Many people napped but I didn't want to miss anything so I was really exhausted once we left the country.The accommodations were comfortable but not luxurious. The food is bland but edible. One of my friends on the trip is vegan, which really puzzled them, but they always tried to accommodate him. You could find sweets, soda and other western food items at the gift shops throughout the country. The local beer is very good. When I was there we were totally cut off from the world - no internet, cell phones, etc. and the TV channel broadcasts the Kim Il Sung show all the time. And of course, there are no ATMs, and credit and debit cards can't be used.The North Koreans will do their best not to let you see poverty, deprivation or malnutrition, though it isn't always possible to completely hide it and we did see glimpses of it, particularly outside Pyongyang. You'll be exposed to the DPRK's view on things, which will probably be at odds to your own. You're not going to hear anything about labour camps or human rights abuses. You will be expected to always show respect and occasionally bow to the Great Leader and Dear Leader's statues, images and their bodies at rest in the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun.The North Koreans themselves are very lovely people. They aren't the militaristic robots that are often shown on TV. We often got treated to impromptu musical performances, which didn’t always strike me as staged. Everyone seems to know how to play the accordion (the People’s Instrument!) and it never seemed to take much encouragement to convince them to perform.However for the most part, they are shy around foreigners, particularly in smaller towns and rural areas where foreigners are rare, and there is the language barrier. But the children are very friendly. You'll never hear a North Korean speak critically about their situation, even "off the record" like you do in Cuba or China, and if you’re an American, you won't be able to visit anyone's private home. But when the guides and others we encountered let their hair down (usually after a few drinks at the end of the day), we had a good time with them. However, it's hard not to feel a sense of tragedy. They have been cut off from the world in a way that the Soviets, East Germans and Cubans haven't been and for a much longer period of time. If/when the regime disappears, it will be far, far more difficult for them to interact and integrate into the international community. They are woefully unprepared to become highly skilled, productive people who can deal with outsiders in a globalized world.The country itself is verdant, green and rugged; extremely beautiful to look at. But it’s understandable why they have so much trouble feeding themselves. Even if their farming practices were efficient, there simply isn't much farmland and, being adjacent to Siberia, the growing season is very short.More of my photos are here: North Korea 2011It was a very memorable trip.

As someone born in the U.S. but having lived in Canada and been a citizen more than half my life here are things I noticed when I moved here:I could not figure out what to do with the milk in the bags. I didn't know there was a special container and a little tool to slice the plastic. I kept looking for the Gallon Milk Jugs. Fact is ....the milk keeps longer and you can even freeze it in those bags --- imagine that.When you went to people's houses - people took their shoes off at the door and walked around in their sock feet. I remember a party wearing a cocktail dress walking around in slippers ---- and everyone was. I now find if I go to the states I forget and do that and my relatives think it is my southern heritage coming through versus Canadian of not wearing shoes:-) It is because there is a lot more snow here and tracking in wet slushy boots can be a mess on carpets or any floor....and it seems to carry over until the rest of the year. Keeps your floors in good shape.Though some people say "eh" and "oot and aboot" that tends to be in smaller towns or certain parts of the country.Most Americans think there is a Canadian accent and the fact is just like the U.S. ....you can go 100 km and you can get another one. People in Newfoundland, Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta all sound very different. But if you go to a small town outside the major city in any province - you will hear differences as well.There are two official languages in Canada - French and English.I find culturally there are some things that are the same and some that are different and that very much differs by area. People in Toronto are much like those in NY or any big city. People in Vancouver I find very much like people in California and those in Alberta - find have similarities to those in south and specifically Texas.I find Canadians to be more socially conscious and the government has better programs to support its citizens.We have a health care system and our citizens will not go bankrupt after a couple day visit to a hospital.Our financial / banking system is one of the strongest in the world. When the U.S. was in trouble - Canada was in good shape.In Canada - we do not bear arms. Our crime rate is nill compared to the U.S. There were 76 murders and this is in a large metropolitan multi-cultural city in 2011 - Toronto GTA - population 5M.I have found Canadians are more accepting of people's differences - no matter what that is - nationality, race , religion, or sexual orientation .Canadians can travel and vacation in Cuba without any government restriction.Travelling on a Canadian passport abroad comes with less hassles as Canadians are well liked abroad. I noticed a real difference.Canada has provinces and territories - not states.Canadians know more about the U.S. than Americans know about Canada.Our government in Canada is a parliamentary system. There is a Prime Minister of Canada not President. We have 3 main parties. (PC, Liberal and NDP). We have Premier of Provinces not Governors.Our Universities and Colleges are reasonably priced and almost any Canadian who has the grades can attend. The average price of one year in a 4 year University including room/board is around 15K and there are good government programs for school loans. There are some that cost a bit more and some less as there are some institutions focused on particular areas such as Engineering, Business, The Arts....etc.Maternity Leave is a Year in CanadaWhen people get laid off in Canada- severance packages are significantly greater than their American counterparts.Canada is to hockey as the U.S. is to football.

Why do hotels charge resort fees?Resort fees are a way for hotels to advertise one low rate yet charge a higher rate that the guest is forced to pay at the hotel. This is a way for the hotel to lure in more guests and make more money. Resort fees brought in $2.47 billion to the hotel industry in 2015.What is a resort fee?A resort fee is a separate mandatory fee that a guest must pay to receive the key to his room. The fee is charged in addition to the room rate. The resort fee is also taxed (usually). Being charged a resort fee is similar to paying a second hotel room rate.Resort fees are unique concept to North America. Though mostly found in tourist destinations in the United States, some resorts in Mexico and the Caribbean also charge resort fees. A handful of hotels in Canada have also recently taken up the practice.Most resort fees are charged separate from the room rate. That is, if a guest pays in advance with a credit card for a room online he is paying the advertised room rate and all necessary taxes. A reasonable person would assume that is the final price of the hotel. When the guest arrives at a hotel with a resort fee; however, he will be forced to pay the additional resort fee / second room rate for his entire stay at the front desk when he checks in.Sometimes this concept as referred to as drip pricing. One price is advertised out front to lure in a customer but when the customer goes to book there are then mandatory unavoidable fees, taxes and other add-ons that incrementally drip and increase the original advertised price.As the term “resort fee” has become tainted in the minds of some tourists, hotels are starting to use new terms for the same idea. Sometimes the additional fee is called an amenity fee, a destination charge, a facility fee, or a resort charge. These are new names for the same resort fee concept.The worst part about these fees is that the information about the fee is usually obscured. Some hotels do not mention the resort fee anywhere online. Many hotels include it only in very small fine print. Some hotels list the fee as a tax.Resort fees / second room rates are always left out of online search tools like Hotel Tonight, Expedia and Priceline making it impossible to compare hotels when shopping online. Since these online tools are there to search for advertised rates, they do not apply to any secondary room rate / resort fees for the night.Resort fees also take profit away from travel agents. Travel agents earn their commission by booking the listed room rate for the hotel but they do not collection commission on taxes or fees.Why Do The Hotels Do This?As more and more guests search and book hotels online using search giants like Expedia, Priceline and Hotels Tonight, hotels receive less of a profit. Expedia(and their associated companies like Hotels.com, Hotwire, Orbitz, Travelocity, Trivago), Priceline (and their company Booking.com) and Hotel Tonight take a large chunk of the profit pie from each hotel reservation they make for a hotel. The hotel then is incentivized to somehow leave Expedia, Priceline andHotel Tonight out of the process. By advertising one rate that a guest pays for through Expedia but then charging a second room rate / resort fee that a guest is forced to pay directly to the hotel ensures the hotel can regain some of its losses.For example, say Bob’s Hotel advertises a $100 hotel on Expedia. Jane books Bob’s Hotel in Niagara Falls,New York on Expedia and pays $100 plus taxes to reserve her room. Expedia might take $25 and then pass $75 on to Bob’s Hotel to secure Jane’s reservation. When Jane gets to the hotel, the front desk staff at Bob’s Hotel tells her there isa $25 resort fee / second room rate that she is forced to pay to be able to receive her key. Jane says she had no idea and thought she had already paid for the room in full on Expedia but the hotel staff says that this is a separate charge, it must be paid directly to the front desk and she cannot receive her room key until she pays the fee. The hotel receives 100% of this $25 that Jane pays directly at the front desk of the hotel. The resort fee is how the hotel gets back to receiving $100 per night for a room. Jane is upset and feels tricked but she is on vacation so she is unlikely to protest. She’ll enjoy her vacation and never return to this hotel again. Bob’s Hotel knows that thousands more people like Jane, who just want to see Niagara Falls once in their life, will stay at the hotel.Doesn’t The Resort Fee Cover Amenities?No. Since the resort fee is a mandatory fee, a guest is not paying for amenities. He is simply paying a second room rate to the hotel.If the resort fee actually covered a service such as the use of the hotel pool, a guest would receive the service if she paid $15 for the use of the pool. Resort fees, however, force a hotel guest to pay $15 under the guise of being able to use the pool when in reality the guest is forced to pay $15 even if she never used the pool because there was freezing rain. The resort fee is not providing a service. It is simply an additional mandatory hotel rate.Hotels like The Andaz in Maui clearly list what the resort fee claims to offer online in bullet points. That is an exception. Most hotels that charge resort fees do not know what their resort fee claims to cover.Usually what the resort fee allegedly covers is not listed online. If a potential customer calls a hotel to inquire about a fee, they might transferred to the hotel’s booking system which generally is thousands of miles away from the actual hotel. A booking agent in Nebraska is unlikely to know the details of the services provided in a hotel in the Napa Valley. If an inquiring potential guest is lucky, he could be transferred back to the hotel’s front desk that might be able to answer the question of what is covered for the resort fee.Most hotel front desk staff is uninformed and untrained in how to answer the question of what is provided by the resort fee. In researching resort fees, I have had front desk staff say the resort fee is “a credit card processing fee,” “a local tax,” and “just a thing everyone does.”Though all of these answers are incorrect there is at least some hotel front desk staff that realize the absurdity of the resort fee situation. When I called the Super 8 Hotel in Las Vegas to ask what was provided with their $14.60 per night resort fee, the clerk who answered the phone burst out laughing.How Do They Get Away With This?Hotels that charge resort fees are usually at hotels that either do not need repeat customers or they are in a location with resort fee collusion.One – No Loyalty NeededHotels that charge mandatory fees in addition to the advertised rate insult their guests intelligence. They can get away with this because these hotels do not care about repeat business. This means that hotels that charge such fees are in tourist areas such as The Florida Keys, Orlando and Miami, Florida; Las Vegas, Nevada; The Hawaiian Islands; Niagara Falls, New York, the Napa Valley in California, etc. These hotels are taking advantage of unsophisticated travelers who do not have expense accounts and are unlikely to read the fine print. The hotels in these areas are also targeting tourists from other countries who are not familiar with US hotel billing practices and may not speak English.For example, say Rakesh and his wife have been saving up for three years to take their kids to Orlando. On the big day, the family sets out at 6am to drive for 12 hours to reach Orlando. When they get to the front desk of the hotel, Rakesh finds out that they have to pay an additional $300 in a resort fee to receive the key for their week stay in Orlando. Though Rakesh did not have any idea about the fee, he is exhausted. He does not know if this extra fee is a normal part of travel and he is ashamed to show his travel naivité. He has three anxious kids at his side and this is his only vacation in three years so he puts the charge on his credit card, feels tricked and takes his family to their room. The family saved up three years for this Orlando trip and three years later when they can travel again, they hope to go see something new. The family is unlikely to ever return to this hotel in Orlando.Two – Resort Fee CollusionAnother way that hotels getaway with this is for hotels in an area to bundle together and all charge high resort fees. This leaves tourists with no non-resort fee alternative. There is currently no hotel on the Las Vegas Strip that does not charge a resort fee / second room rate. From the Circus Circus’ $23.52 to the Bellagio’s $35.84, there is no alternative to these add-on fees. If you want to go to Las Vegas and stay on the Strip, you will be forced to pay an additional $23.52 - $35.84 per night and you have no other options.How Do Hotels Justify Resort Fees?Excuse One) Increasing Cost of Hotel FacilitiesHotels justify resort fees by saying that the fee pays for the increasingly lavish costs of the hotel facilities. They argue that the room rate a guest pays only pays for his hotel room. The resort fee covers the use of the rest of the hotel – the pool, the gym, the wifi, etc. That’d be valid if it was possible to opt out of the resort fee, yet resort fees are almost always mandatory. If a guest truly does only want to use the hotel to sleep in her bed and nothing else, she would still be forced to pay the resort fee to receive the key to her room.Furthermore, the argument that a resort fee pays for the parts of the resort might be valid if it only existed at resorts. The Super 8 in Las Vegas has a resort fee as does the two-star Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City and the Days Inn in Miami.Under this same line of inquiry, one has to wonder what the Moana Surfrider, A Westin Hotel in Hawaii, is doing charging $1,530 per night as their advertised room rate yet what on earth is not covered that the hotel still has an additional mandatory resort fee of $31.41 per night. With this logic, that is one very luxurious hotel room and one very not so exciting resort.Fifteen hotels in New York City now charge resort fees. Though one generally does not associate New York City with resort-like relaxation, the city has never been known as a place to shy away from an extra dollar. The fifteen hotels in New York that charge resort fees do not offer any sort of sprawling luxury pool area but they do charge a resort fee of up to $32.66 per night for the pleasure of sleeping in a bed in New York City.Resort fees do not pay for resort services and amenities as they exist at thousands of hotels that do not even have a pool.Excuse Two) The fees are clearly labeled and the purchaser should have knownAnother way that hotel operators justify resort fees is that they say they are clearly labeled on their hotel websites and customers should read the fine print. Katherine Lugar, President and CEO of the American Hotel and Lodging Association said “throughout the booking process, hotels are transparent about costs, fees and taxes.”Sometimes this is true and hotels do note in the checkout part of the site in small print that resort fees will be applied. This is not always true; however, and some hotels leave any mention of a resort fee off of their website.Usually the hotels prefer to mention their resort fee somewhere likely never to be seen by a potential purchaser. The DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Grand Key Resort in Key West, Florida mentions their pet deposit of 75 dollars on their front page but there is no mention of the $25 resort fee. To see the resort fee, a potential guest will need to put specific dates in the calendar and then the advertised prices are listed in large, bold 21 font size with a variety of price options. The resort fee is mentioned only once above the multiple advertised prices in 7.5 font size.Though all hotels that mention resort fees seem to put them in small font, some shift the attention even further to the taxes section of the page. If a guest directly books a hotel on the hotel’s website, the resort fee is often listed in taxes. This is a page that is likely never to be questioned by a tourist. A resort fee is not a tax.The Arizona Grand Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona has on their purchase page a summary that lists only the “subtotal” and the “taxes.” Only if you click on a further link for details do you see that the taxes include a $49.00 resort fee. Arizona has no resort fee tax.Even if a hotel, like the Intercontinental in Miami, clearly labels that a $15 resort fee will apply on their own website, that means nothing if a guest makes the booking on a comparison booking site like Expedia where all of the resort fees are left off. Since only the advertised room rate is shown on Expedia, Priceline and Hotel Tonight, there is no way to figure out which hotels have resort fees or what the resort fee is when comparing hotels.Excuse Three) This is no different than the airline industry or any other industry fees.Another defense of the hotel industry is that resort fees are no different that all of the fees that people seem to have gotten used to with other purchases. Rosanna Maietta, spokeswoman for the American Hotel & Lodging Association, said “service fees are common practice in retail and commerce, from banking and mobile fees to extra charges for event tickets.”This too is incorrect because resort fees are not payment for a service. The airline equivalent of the resort fee would be a flight attendant standing at the front of the boarding gate demanding an extra $35 to board the plane.The New York Times reported about the “Barrage of Fees is Starting to Follow Fliers to the Hotel” on August 12, 2013. In the article, Professor Bjorn Hanson of New York University said “the airline industry has created great cover that has emboldened the hotel industry.”Excuse Four) Eliminates “Nickel-and-Diming”A very common claim by those charging resort fees is that guests love that all sorts of amenities are bundled together. MGM Resorts International Senior Vice President Alan Feldman said “we have heard negative feedback from guests but we’ve also heard positive feedback from guests who are happy they are no longer paying a la carte for different services. They don’t feel nickeled and dimed.”These hotel executives are referencing back to a day when a luxury resort hotel may charge $10 to enter the pool or $2 for a thirty second local call. Today, however, the MGM Grand inLas Vegas charges $33.60 per day in addition to their room rate under the guise of providing “property-wide high speed internet access, unlimited local and toll free calls, airline boarding pass printing, notary service and fitness center access for guests 18+.” Local and toll free calls and boarding pass printing are obsolete services that the MGM Grand executives are claiming guests were asking to pay for in response to “nickel and diming.”Though hotel executives love to claim customers asked for a resort fee instead of being nickel and dimed, all one needs to do is search for tourists talking about resort fees online. All are negative. I could find no praise of resort fees from any tourist anywhere online. A quick search of Twitter returns thousands of tweets about peoples frustration with resort fees. There does not seem to be one hotel customer who is advocating for resort fees yet there are thousands of people who complain about being forced to pay $33.60 a day in the name of toll free local calls.How Is This Legal?Resort fees are likely illegal according to existing state consumer protection laws.Currently Senator McCaskill has introduced a bill in the US Senate that would allow for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to regulate and go after hotels that charge two rates for one night / resort fees. The Federal Trade Commission is the government organization that is tasked to regulate the hotel industry.The Federal Trade Commission has currently done little to protect consumers against hotels charging two room rates for one night. In 2012, they sent a warning letter to 22 hotels charging resort fees. No further action has been taking by the FTC on resort fees.In comparison, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has the authority to regulate the airline industry. They have gone after airlines for bogus fees like variable fuel charges. The DOT rule from January 26, 2012 (14 CFR 399.84(a)) requires that any advertisement for air travel must include all taxes, government-imposed fees,and all mandatory airline and ticket-agent imposed fees. This is why if a tourist buys a plane ticket on Expedia from Detroit to Buffalo, he can walk onto the plane and enjoy his plane ride from Detroit to Buffalo with that ticket.The Federal Trade Commission has argued that they do not have enough authority to go after hotels that charge two rates for one night. FTC Chairwoman Ramirez has called on Congress to draft new legislation to protect consumers from resort fees / two room charges for one night. Punting to Congress, Chairwoman Ramirez wrote to legislators interested in resort fee legislation. She said “in my view…the most efficient and effective means to mandate the type of industry-wide requirement you propose would be through legislation.”Senator McCaskill introduced the Truth in Hotel Advertising Act of 2016 on February 25, 2016. It is currently sitting in the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. The bill “prohibits certain entities that are subject to the enforcement authority of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from advertising a rate for a hotel room that does not include all required fees other than taxes and fees imposed by a government.”Though laws that protect consumers from misleading and deceptive pricing are not being enforced in the United States, that is not the case in the rest of the world. The European Union requires all mandatory fees to be included in advertised prices. This makes the advertising of one rate plus resort fees in Europe verboten. The JW Marriott Marquis in Miami has a $15 resort fee. The “destination fee” is listed separate from the room rate when viewing the website from the United States in English and from the German version of the site from Germany. There is no difference between the ways the JW Marriott Marquis in Miami is advertising their website in Europe even though the practice is in violation of European Union law (see directive 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament).What are the consequences?Resort fees annoy tourists and they do not earn hotels repeat customers yet there are even more serious consequences to the practice of charging two room rates for one night.A Taxing IssueHotels that charge one advertised rate and one resort fee instead of charging just one total hotel price are depriving state and local taxing authorities from revenue.The Row Hotel in New York City advertises a $223.65 hotel room on their website. The hotel has a $25 facility fee. So a pre-tax hotel room at The Row costs $248.65. That is the amount that The Row should be taxed at to calculate the New York City occupancy tax and the New York City Javits Center tax. Yet, because $25 is missing from the total cost of the hotel, the entire price of the room is not subject to the occupancy tax or the New York City Javits Center tax. The resort fee at The Row in NYC is only being charged the New York City sales tax and the New York state sales tax. The facility fee / resort fee/ second room rate at The Row Hotel is only subject to 8.875% taxation. The advertised room rate is subject to a 16.3% tax rate.Free Nights Are Not So FreeWhen a hotel has a resort fee, the hotel can advertise free nights within their loyalty programs yet still collect a hefty amount of money for that “free night.” Casino hotels are particularly big on this practice. By charging resort fees, they can comp a room (give a room to a guest “for free”) to a guest for a week but still collect $150 in room fees for a “free five day stay.” This makes a “free night”not so free.Elimination of TrustOf course the worst cost to all of this is the total lack of trust between the hotel operator and the guest. If a hotel hides fees and demands more money for a guest to receive their key, where does it end? What hidden fees are next? Many guests have reported paying for a mandatory “safe charge.” That is, a fee to use the safe in the room whether they use it or not. How is a traveler to know where the mandatory add on fees end? There is no way to know what a guest has to pay fora hotel room until a customer knows the advertised price means something.When Does It End?Resort fees have gone up both by the amount charged by the hotels for the fee and the number of hotels that are charging resort fees. The average mandatory resort fee in October 2015 was $24.93, an increase of 30 percent over the $19.20 average resort fee of hotels the year prior. The number of hotels with resort fees grew from 1,191 hotels in December 2014 to 1,671 hotels in October 2015. This is an increase of 40.3 percent.Currently many hotels advertise a room rate that is less expensive than the resort fee. The Excalibur in Las Vegas advertised a room rate of $28.00 per night fora one night stay for May 31, 2016. The resort fee for that room is $29.12 per night. The resort fee costs more than the cost of the hotel room. An actual one night stay at the Excalibur then would actually be $60.48. There is nothing stopping these hotels from advertising a $1 hotel and then having a $100 resort fee.Without a change to the law, there is unlikely to be an end to these second room rates.How Can You Avoid Paying Resort Fees?Step One – Ask to speak to the managerWhen you are at the front desk and the hotel staff is demanding an additional $35 a night for you to receive your key, politely ask the manager if you can decline all of the amenities the hotel is allegedly providing with the resort fee. Say you are not interested in the pool as it is freezing out. See if you can get a nice manager to remove the resort fee. If you are at a hotel where you have loyalty status, politely remind the manager of your status and ask for the fee to be waived.Step Two –Dispute the chargeIf speaking with the manager does not work, pay with your credit card and make sure to get documentation from the front desk that shows that you were forced to pay an additional second rate / resort fee for you to receive your room key. After you stay at the hotel, make sure to talk to your credit card company about how you were forced to pay an additional $35 per night that was not advertised, it was not part of the room rate and you used none of the services allegedly provided. Ask for the credit card company to dispute the claim and return the $35 per day charge back to your credit card. They will investigate and the credit card company will likely refund you.Step Three - Small Claims CourtIf you paid your resort fee with cash, there is still one last effort you can take to get your resort fee / second room rate back. Make sure to get a receipt. A one week stay in a hotel with a resort fee can easily be $250 that one did not expect to spend. If you booked the original room rate online sitting on your couch at home, you have jurisdiction to sue the hotel in your home district’s small claims court. Small claims court allows you to fill out a piece of paper or two and pay a small claims court fee. The small claims court will send a notice to the hotel that you are requesting the return of the $250 fee. No lawyer is needed for small claims court and the court is specifically set up to be as accessible as possible to anyone who feels like they have been wronged. Small claims court is an excellent way to get justice.In addition to personally challenging one resort fee, what steps can be taken to end resort fees now?1) Search giants like Google should promote sites that display the true price of the hotels.2) Companies like AAA that rate hotels should continue their policy of removing points from the hotels’ evaluation score at hotels that charge resort fees. Travel guides and hotel ratings should not encourage guests to stay in hotels that charge two rates for one night.3) Call your member of Congress and tell them that you would like to see an end to resort fees / two room rates for one night.SummaryResort fees are a way for hotels to advertise one low price but charge another higher price when the guest gets to the hotel. This brings in billions of dollars to the hotels. Often these hotels are in locations that are preying upon unsophisticated tourists. The Federal Trade Commission is tasked with regulating the hotel industry. So far the FTC has done little to protect tourists from double room rates at resort fee hotels. Without a law making the charging of two rates for one night / resort fees illegal, it is unlikely that this practice will change.The advertised hotel room rate should be the final price of the hotel.EXAMPLES:Excalibur’s $28 advertised room rate is less than their $29.12 resort fee.The Arizona Grand Hotel lists their resort fee as a tax.The Super 8 in Las Vegas has a resort fee.The DoubleTree by Hilton in Key West, Florida mentions the $75 pet fee on the front page of their website. There is no mention of their $25 resort fee anywhere on their front page.The Row NYC, along with many other New York City hotels charging resort fees, taxes their resort fee at a different rate than their advertised room rate.The 2012 Warning Letter from the Federal Trade Commission to 22 Hotels Charging Resort FeesThe JW Marriott Marquis in Miami does not include their resort fee in their advertised price on their US site in English or on their German site in Germany.AAA will ding hotels for charging resort feesHotel Spokespeople Defending Resort Fees / Two Room Rates for One NightThere is plenty of chatter on the internet involving resort fees. None of it is positive. All of it involves confusion about what a resort fee is and whether the person has to pay it or the rage in having to pay it. Here are some tweets just from the last week.