Has anyone else noticed the newspaper charge on their bill?

[tar heel]

I was going through some stuff the other day and noticed something I had never seen before on my Yacht Club bill for our July stay. In the righthand corner in fine print, there's some info. about other charges that says you are being charged for USA Today and that you have a right to refuse it and have 50 cents (?) per day taken off your charge. I have never noticed this before -- has anyone had it removed?

The really odd thing is that in our 7-day stay we only received three newspapers. I would have had it taken off the bill if I had noticed b/c my husband is a newspaper editor and needs to stay away from them while he's on vacation!

 

[manning]

Kind of a sneaky way of charging you for a paper. All charges, other than room charges should be explained to you upon check-in! especially if you have the option to decline them.

 

[Gillian]

Do they give you a different paper on the weekend? Or charge you less? USAtoday is only m-f, I believe. or maybe m-s. No sunday paper, I know.

 

[Eeyore1954]

I travel a lot on business and this is very common at many hotels. The charge is never explained unless you ask and most people would not notice the fine print on the bill. It's also on the form you sign at check-in, but again the print is so small it's easy to miss it.

 

[pooh6890]

What hotel? I believe the Deluxes state that papers are delivered each morning at no cost. We stayed at BWI and received a paper each a.m. including Sunday, at no cost to us.

 

[CarolA]

They are delivered at no cost. However, normally they will credit your account if you choose not to have them delivered. However, at a lot of hotels the credit is more like 25 cents. I don't really think it is worth the hassle to remove them. I mean if you stay a week you are talking about $2.50!

 

[Bob NC]

We have received a USA Today on weekday mornings, but have never seen any evidence of it on a bill. Up until 2 years ago, on weekends we would receive a copy of the Orlando paper, (Sentinel?). The past couple years there has been no paper delivered on weekends.

 

[Sandi]

I've not had this experience at WDW hotels, but for business travel it often comes up. What I was told is that it helps newspapers get bigger "paid circulation" numbers and, thus, they can charge more for advertising. I would decline it in a heartbeat.

 

[cinmell]

We received the Orlando paper daily at the Contemporary and never had any charges to our bill.

 

[polyfan]

We stayed at the Poly in July. I just checked our bill. There were no charges for the paper. I think it is free of charge at the deluxes.

 

[WeLoveDisney]

Many business hotels do this and the way it works is that the paper is included in the rate, and if you decline it they will remove the charge from your bill. So, you're not actually getting charged extra where you would notice it in your bill, but if you refused it you would get a credit.

 

[GEM]

We loved getting the paper during our stay at the Wilderness Lodge. While one of us was in the shower in the morning, the other could sit out on the balcony with some coffee and a muffin and read the paper. We didn't have a separate charge on our bill for it, so I guess it just must have been included in the price already. Even if we hadn't read it, I wouldn't have bothered having the 50 cents a day or whatever taken off the bill.

 

[Mirthrindr]

This is nothing new at WDW Deluxe resorts, we've known about this little known charge for several years now, I think we first learned of it on one of the Disney newsgroups or discussion boards several years ago, though I forget exactly where now. Perhaps it varies from resort to resort, but it is most definitely nothing new.
The way I remember it being explained is as 'WeLoveDisney' just explained it, in that there is NOT a separate charge for the paper that you will see reflected on your bill. Instead, it is already factored into your room rate. Somewhere though is a mention of this charge and a small blurb stating that you have a right to request the paper NOT be delivered to your room and you will be credited the miniscule amount or something similar. That's how it has been in the past, I wonder if they have since begun listing it on the bill due to complaints or something. So for most of you who thought you never got charged for it, you were very likely duped like most other unaware guests.
As Tar heel described, "there is some info", this is not the same as an itemized line with a clear charge as most people are probably envisioning as they look at their bill. It sounds like it is actually just a text EXPLAINATION of this additional charge, buried within the 'Terms and Conditions' for lack of a better term to describe the little fine print.

Mirth

 

[DebbieB]

Originally posted by pooh6890
What hotel? I believe the Deluxes state that papers are delivered each morning at no cost. We stayed at BWI and received a paper each a.m. including Sunday, at no cost to us.

I noticed that in the fine print a long time ago, so this has been going on for some time. It's on the paper you sign when you check-in, they do not give you a copy, it's not on the final bill. The cost is included in your room rate, so you will not see it on the bill, but you can decline it and get a credit on your bill.