Extra fees? He will gladly say, ‘No way’

GREAT article about extra fees [“What’ll They Charge You for Next, the Room Key?” Travel Insider, Dec. 18].

About 15 days per month, I travel all over the world for my business, and I’ve found that these extra fees, especially bad in the U.S., are really getting out of hand.

My suggestion is to ask for the general manager, not the front-desk manager, and tell him or her you will not be paying a resort fee or a $3 per-call fee or any other fee that’s made up to throw on the bill.

Of course, most of the time, they never let you speak to the general manager because they don’t want to bother him, and most of the time they will take these fees off if you stand your ground and don’t give in.

Some of the worst situations I have seen:

* A hotel in Naples, Fla., wanted to charge $3.50 for each towel at the pool after charging a $40 per-day resort fee, which I didn’t pay either.

* A hotel in Paris wanted to charge a daily parking fee of 35 euros (about $41), which is fine, and a per-event parking fee of 12 euros (about $14) every time they put the car in and out of the garage.

* At a hotel in Venice, Italy, one bowl of Cheerios with warm milk for breakfast, 32 euros (about $38).

When my wife asked for one extra poached egg, they tried to charge 8 euros ($9) for one egg. I told them I would pay 2 euros; they said fine.

STEPHEN G. LEE

Los Angeles