Hotel Nikko San Francisco Hotel Nikko Hotel Nikko charges a daily "amenity fee" that is mandatory for all guests (cannot be refused), but is not included in the total charges specified in my pre-stay confirmation email. San Francisco California

I booked a 5-day stay at Hotel Nikko for January 2020 through hotels.com.  I got a confirmation email that stated in large letters at the very top: "Dear Susan, your booking is confirmed.  The hotel will charge you $1,589.81."  However, when I checked out of the hotel after my stay, the hotel charged me $1,787.81.  I was told I was being charged a $39.60 per day amenity fee on top of the stated charges.  I asked the manager Ericka whether there had been any way to refuse the amenity fee, and she said no -- all guests are required to pay it. 

It is absolutely untrue that the hotel would charge me $1,589.81, as stated in my confirmation email; my charge was $200 more than that.  I believe it to be fraud when you say you are going to charge one price, but in reality charge a higher price. It is true that the amenity fee is mentioned in fine print on page 4 of the email; however, the statement of the charges at the top of my email is nonetheless still false.

I believe it is inherently dishonest to separate out part of your mandatory room charges into a separate line item that gets obfuscated until the guest is required to pay.  It allows Hotel Nikko to show a price on hotels.com that is lower than what their actual price is.  People comparing prices across hotels are tricked into thinking that Hotel Nikko has a lower price than they have.  And even if fine print about an amenity fee pops up somewhere during the buying process, it is not prominent, and people like me could be left unaware of it.