MCR Hotels Owner Tries out Ancillary Fees - including in TWA Hotel

MCR Hotels Owner Tries out Ancillary Fees - including in TWA Hotel
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MCR Hotels Experiments with Extra Fees for Services

MCR Hotels, one of the largest US hotel owners, is testing out user fees for services like the swimming pool and early check-in.

A-la-carte pricing for hotel services

For years, extra revenues have become the core of many business models including airlines and hotels. For extra legroom, seat selection or additional luggage, customers are willing to pay more for greater comfort. Now Tyler Morse, the owner of MCR Hotels, has decided to test the model in the hotel industry, allowing customers to pay for the services that they actually use during their stays.

“Not every guest wants every product, and they don’t want to pay for something they were never going to use anyway,” Morse told the Wall Street Journal.

Under the new pricing strategy, each use of the hotel pool costs $25; early check-in or late checkout costs about $20; in addition to the use of the fitness centre and having breakfast.

Hotel industry to adopt new changes?

Morse mentioned that he is offering lower nightly room rates by degrees as he implements his new model in about a dozen hotels in the US.

He hopes that other hotels will also soon adopt this a-la-carte system, but Morse also realises the challenge for the industry to experiment with his philosophy. “Other owners are fully behind me, but there’s always a fear of change.”

Many hotels do not have the required technology and resources to adopt this user-pays pricing system. MCR Hotels is the fourth largest hotel owner-operator in the US, with more than 15,000 guestrooms in 110 hotels.

Hanh Dinh
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