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Marriott CEO says resort fees will continue in spite of D.C. lawsuit

Marriott International president and CEO Arne Sorenson said in an interview Friday that so-called resort fees are not going away despite a recent lawsuit from the attorney general of Washington, D.C.

Why it matters: Resort fees have certainly helped Marriott's bottom line. Shares have outperformed the S&P 500 by 11% so far this year, rising a little more than 31% year to date, and has outperformed the S&P by around 340% over the decade-long period D.C.'s attorney general alleges the "drip pricing" scheme has been happening.

What's happening: "We'll obviously fight it," Sorenson said of the lawsuit, which alleges Marriott made hundreds of millions of dollars from the fees, which are described as deceptive and in violation the District's consumer protection laws.

  • By advertising a base rate for rooms and then adding the fees after customers booked a room or when they checked out of a hotel, Marriott used a practice known as "drip pricing," the complaint says.

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