A hotel in Nevada is coming under fire for including a hidden fee that supposedly allows them to charge guests for electricity usage during their stay.
The ruse was discovered when people received an ‘Erf’ rate of $12.95 when they booked a room at the Holiday Inn Express and Suites in Elko, a northern Nevada city of about 20,000 people.
‘ERF’ fees, more commonly known as energy recovery fees, are most commonly charged by car rental companies to recover gasoline costs.
The fee may go unnoticed by those who book online, because the $12.95 is not included in the final total. Instead, as the website explains, the fee is “not included in the nightly price.”
The sneak charge is also mentioned right after the 3 percent credit card surcharge, making no distinction between the two charges separately.
Gary Leff, a travel expert who has written for Condé Nast, was the first to draw attention to the Elko hotel. writing: “I wouldn’t stay in a hotel that doesn’t consider that the room price includes electricity.”
The Holiday Inn in Elko, Nevada. The property has come under fire for charging guests a $12.95 fee that is supposedly for electricity use.
Pictured: The fee charged to everyone trying to book a room at the Elko Holiday Inn.
An employee who answered the phone at the Holiday Inn in Elko declined to comment to DailyMail.com.
DailyMail.com sought comment from the hotel by email and also contacted Holiday Inn’s parent company, IHG Hotels & Resorts.
The $12.95 fee appears to be a one-time fee as it does not increase when more nights are added to a stay.
The closest Holiday Inn to the one in Elko is in Winnemucca, which is about a 125-mile drive. That property does not charge its guests this same fee, nor does it apply a 3 percent credit card surcharge.
The Holiday Inn in Ely, a town farther south than Elko or Winnemucca, also doesn’t penalize credit card holders or charge the mysterious fee.
Avid travelers flocked to an online forum called ‘brochure talk‘ to complain about the hotel in Elko.
Gary Leff, pictured, is a long-time travel guru and was one of the first to point out the fee.
The original poster explained that they used their IHG rewards points to pay in full for their stay, but claimed they were charged the “energy recovery fee plus a 3% credit card surcharge.”
‘Is this allowed by IHG?’ they wrote. “I have redeemed hundreds of reward nights with these programs and have never had to pay a fee like this.”
One person responded suggesting that the original poster should choose another IHG property in the area, if there is one.
As mentioned above, the closest IHG property is over 100 miles away. Most of the remaining hotels or motels in Elko are owned by competitor Hilton or managed by small business owners.
Other commenters said they were suspicious of the Holiday Inn in Elko.
‘They bury it in the booking confirmation anyway. It seems suspicious to me that they do not have the ERF included in the total price that appears on IHG when booking. They mention it but don’t include it in the total,’ one person wrote.
It is still unclear when and why this hotel decided to charge this fee. It is also unknown if IHG is aware of this situation.