Could This New Lawsuit Be The Death of the Hotel Newspaper?
![[IMG]](http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/1425/hotelnewspaper_lawsuit.JPG)
This story is for all the people who leave us nasty comments when we complain about annoying hotel fees.At least we haven't filed a lawsuit about them yet.
Yes, one man is so upset about being charged 75 cents for what he thought was a free copy of USA Today that he is suing Hilton Hotels in a federal class action lawsuit. The San Francisco Chroniclereports:
Rodney Harmon, 55, of Sacramento said he visited the Hilton Garden Inn Sonoma County Airport on March 28 and saw a copy of USA Today outside his door.
"He did not request a newspaper and assumed it had been placed there by hotel staff," said the suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Harmon didn't realize until later that a 75-cent charge for the paper had been added to his bill.
Harmon accused Hilton of deliberately hiding the newspaper charge by describing the fee in an "extremely small font which is difficult to notice or read" on the sleeve of the room card.
Hmpf. We always thought that "complimentary newspaper" description listed under amenities on a hotel's website or included in the dreaded resort fees was redundant because we assumed that the newspapers were always complimentary? Guess not.
Also, Harmon's suit not only claims the charge was deceptive but also that handing out newspapers is bad for the environment. Zing! Hilton Hotels has not issued a statement due to the pending litigation but we wouldn't be surprised if hotels started to pull back from offering newspapers to guests in the mornings.
Now if you excuse us, we are going to go make Team Rodney t-shirts and get our jars of glitter ready to throw on him as he enters court.
http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2...w_Lawsuit_Be_The_Death_of_the_Hotel_Newspaper_