A Look at the Sneaky Fees at Canada's Biggest Tourist Spot That Some Call 'a Total Cash Grab' - CBC

Excerpt from CBC

Marketplace tracks the growing charges at restaurants, hotels and attractions in Niagara Falls

With around 14 million annual visitors, Niagara Falls is already a potential cash cow to the many area businesses serving tourists. But at some of them, visitors are finding contentious fees added to their bills — and CBC Marketplace has found they're growing.

If noticed at all, tourists typically see them next to provincial sales tax, or the city's Municipal Accommodation Tax.

Tourists and critics say that placement on the bill gives the appearance of a government-mandated charge. But that is not the case.

"It's going to the owner" of the business, said Janice Thomson, president and CEO of Niagara Falls Tourism.

Just as there is no consistency in how much is charged — Marketplace found they ranged from three to 12 per cent — there is no single name for the added fees. They go by names such as NFDF, or Niagara Falls Destination Fee, and TIF, or Tourism Improvement Fee. There's even an LF, or Luxury Fee, among many others. 

While they are not charged at every hotel, restaurant or attraction, random spot checks conducted by Marketplace over nearly a decade show the number of businesses adding fees to customer bills is growing, as is the amount being charged.

For instance, a $150/night hotel charge would see up to an additional $18 added.

"It's a total cash grab," a server at Milestones restaurant told an undercover Marketplace producer. When asked by customers, she says she "cringe[s] every time and I'm totally honest about it because that's what it is." 

The restaurant charges a six per cent "Luxury Fee" at its Niagara Fallsview location, though no such charge exists at most other locations of the chain, according to the restaurant's parent company, Foodtastic.

"It's clearly deceptive," says Prof. Andrew Ching, a marketing and economics professor at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.

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