On Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:02:16 -0600, Stephen Sprunk
wrote:
On 23-Jan-12 10:49, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
Roland Perry wrote:
at 13:52:10 on Mon, 23 Jan 2012, Adam H. Kerman remarked:
wrote:
Here in many (if not all) parts of Europe, the price that you pay for
something already has relevant taxes figured in.
Yet here in the United States, when prices for airline travel and hotel
rooms are stated, they included taxes. In Europe, travel prices are
more often stated without all taxes included.
...
Many hotels in tourist spots have a "surprise" city tourist/hotel tax,
but not in the UK.
That would be unheard of in the United States. Various places have plenty
of taxes on hotel charges, but these would be quoted up front.
Not always. Most of the travel sites I use do _not_ quote the various
taxes and fees when comparing options; you may not see those until you
get to the payment stage.
This is understandable, since they want to present the lowest price
possible until you're mentally committed to purchasing it, in hopes that
the price going up by 25%+ at the last moment won't cause you to back
out at the last minute.
guffaw Like the ad in Saturday's "Globe and Mail" Travel Section for
an outfit called "Canadian Affair" (presumably an air charter outfit)
offering $49/round trip Toronto-London but the small print warning of
"taxes and fees $522"
It is the same in many other industries, which tack on all sorts of
"fees" that, in any sane country, would be required to be included in
the price. The extreme example is offering a product for "free, just
pay $19.95 shipping and handling."
S