Lawsuit Filed Over 75¢ Hotel Fee

Today’s travelers should never assume that required charges, let alone tiny perks and amenities are included in the agreed-upon rate — not even for what might reasonably be understood to be a free newspaper left outside one’s hotel room door.

Meet the man who is literally making a federal case out of a 75¢ charge for the “complimentary” newspaper placed outside his hotel room door.

The latest traveler to unpleasantly discover that such presumed freebies aren’t free at all is Rodney Harmon, a 55-year-old man from Sacramento who recently stayed at a Hilton Garden Inn near the Sonoma County Airport in California.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Harmon woke one morning in his hotel to discover a copy of USA Today in the hallway outside his room. He didn’t request the newspaper, and, like most other hotel guests, assumed it was provided by the hotel free of charge.

It wasn’t. Because Harmon took the paper and flipped through it, a fee for 75¢ was added to his hotel bill.

It’s pretty easy to see how the hotel bills of thousands and thousands of other travelers are inflated in similar fashion, usually without guests having a clue. This is why, after Harmon discovered the fee, he decided to file a federal class-action suit against Hilton.

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