Headline: California hotels add surcharges for power to counter high energy prices

Source: Wall Street Journal, 26 Feb 2001 [excerpt]

URL: http://www.msnbc.com/news/535911.asp?cp1=1

Several big hotel chains, worried by the bottom-line impact of the Western U.S. power crisis, are adding surcharges to guests’ bills rather than risk annoying them by turning down lights or heat. Marriott International Inc. began Sunday adding $2.50 a night to bills at its Marriott and Renaissance hotels in California — whether or not they have been hit with rising costs.

Hilton Hotels Corp. is considering adding the energy surcharges at certain hotels. If they do, they will be following the lead of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., which began a couple of weeks ago adding about $2.50 a night to most hotel bills in California, Oregon and Washington state.

“We’re reviewing it selectively at some hotels,” said Dieter Huckestein, president of Beverly Hills-based Hilton’s hotel operations. “I think customers will appreciate there are extenuating circumstances.”

The surcharges are one way that hotels are attempting to counter fast-rising electricity and natural-gas prices that are eating into their profitability. Typically, energy accounts for around 10 percent of the cost of operating a hotel. ...

-- Andre Weltman (aweltman@state.pa.us), February 26, 2001