What’ll they charge you for next, the room key?

DURING a recent stay at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago, I was dazzled by the Beaux Arts-style lobby, with its painted coffered ceiling, and the solicitous staff.

But at this grande dame of hospitality, I chose to forgo some conveniences because they carried extra fees or were just too expensive.

I didn’t visit the fitness center, which cost $10 per day. I didn’t print out my airline boarding pass because the business center charged $7.50 for 15 minutes of computer use. I passed on a refrigerator in my room to avoid a $30 charge.

Some experts say fees in the lodging industry have surged. Besides the extra costs I encountered, you may find fees or surcharges for phone calls, wireless access, parking, rollaway beds, mini-bar restocking, receiving courier packages, and sending or receiving faxes. Room service may carry up to three fees -- a surcharge, a delivery fee and a mandatory gratuity.

Check out a day early and you may owe $25 or $75. Storing your bags after checkout? That’s no longer free at some places. And then there’s the multipurpose resort fee of $12 or $15 or more per day, covering the gym, newspaper delivery and who knows what else.

Bjorn Hanson, hospitality consultant in New York for the PricewaterhouseCoopers accounting company, says he has found all these add-ons in his frequent travels. And he keeps encountering new ones, such as requiring guests to buy cords, at $11.95 and up, for high-speed Internet access.

Such charges from nontraditional sources, Hanson says, will contribute $1.4 billion to industry coffers in the U.S. this year, surpassing the $1-billion record in 2000.

After the 2001 terrorist attacks dampened travel demand, he adds, many hotels eliminated or reduced fees. But that trend has reversed, Hanson says. The average U.S. room rate will finish this year 5.2% higher than in 2004, according to his company’s projections. In New York, it’s up 16%.

Rates and fees are increasing, he says, partly because demand and room occupancy levels are up. Hotels charge more because they can. “The level of guest negative response is surprisingly low,” he says, possibly because we are resigned to increasing prices.

Hoteliers say they need fees and surcharges to recoup investments in technology and upgrades, such as luxury beds and linens, that guests increasingly demand. (Executives at the Palmer House Hilton declined to comment on their charges for this story.)

A rollaway bed may cost you more than it used to -- up to $60 per night at luxury hotels, Hanson says -- but it’s probably a better-quality bed.

In Rick Lawrance’s view, charging a fee for services used is a better way to do business than charging all customers.

“It’s legitimate to charge guests for unique services that they opt to use,” says the president and chief executive of the California Lodging Industry Assn. “Why should everyone pay?”

Unlike Hanson, Lawrance sees the trend in hotel fees as “very much a mixed bag,” with some up, some down.

In fact, more U.S. hotels offered local calls, newspapers and breakfasts for free last year than in 1996, according to surveys commissioned by the American Hotel & Lodging Assn. On the other hand, twice as many charged for early checkout.

Finding out about fees and surcharges can be tricky. On their websites, hotels typically tout amenities without listing fees or even mentioning that there are any. If you care, call.

When you book a room, Hanson suggests, ask whether any extra costs are associated with your stay, and get the name of the reservations agent who handled your request. That way, if an unforeseen fee surfaces, “you have some standing to dispute the charge,” he says.

If the fee is for a service, such as housekeeping, that was poor, ask the hotel to remove or reduce it, Hanson says.

But don’t be surprised if the front desk resists your request. “Starting in 2004, hotels became much more aggressive about retaining this revenue,” he says.

Not the argumentative type? Take evasive action to reduce some common costs:

* Forget the car, if you can, when visiting a city.

Hanson says his company’s studies show that in urban areas the most expensive parking is at hotels. Most don’t run their own garages, so you’re paying their lease, accounting and other charges, experts explain.

Arranging alternatives can be a hassle. At Los Angeles’ Millennium Biltmore Hotel -- like the Palmer House Hilton, a venerable landmark -- guest parking was $24 per night. Within a block in each direction, I found lower prices at several places, especially on weekends. But unlike the Biltmore, these garages didn’t offer in-and-out privileges; some banned overnight parking. If you can’t ditch the car, consider renting it for fewer days.

* Hit the streets for breakfast.

On my Chicago trip, I ate breakfast at a cafe half a block from the Palmer House Hilton, where a plate of eggs, bacon, potatoes and toast cost $4.79 -- half of what it did at the hotel.

At the Biltmore, my breakfast at Smeraldi’s Restaurant this month was a symphony of fluffy scrambled eggs, spicy potatoes, ham, toast and snappy service. But the bill, with coffee, totaled $16.25, plus tax and tip.

Within a block of the Biltmore, several cafes served a similar breakfast for $4.29 to $7.38, albeit on paper or plastic plates.

Lawrance acknowledges that hotel restaurants may charge more than the going rate for meals. But he says food operations at hotels often have higher labor and operating costs because they are open 18 or 24 hours each day, seven days a week, to serve guests.

Another option: Nearly 60% of hotels in the lodging association’s survey offer free breakfast.

* Take a cellphone or buy a phone card with prepaid minutes.

If your cellular phone has a reasonably priced national calling plan, that’s your best bet. You can use it anywhere, unlike a phone card, which must be plugged into a pay phone.

Either option may be preferable to paying $1 or more for each local or toll-free call and nearly $7 or more per minute for long-distance calls.

Better yet, choose a hotel with free outgoing local calls. More than 60% of U.S. hotels offer this perk, according to the American Hotel & Lodging Assn. survey.

Phone charges irritate travelers. But Lawrance says maintaining hundreds of in-room lines and other infrastructure is expensive; at the same time, revenue is down because more guests use cellphones.

* Find a photocopy shop.

Need to make a copy, send a fax or rent some computer time? You’ll usually pay less outside the hotel.

Biltmore’s business center, for instance, charged 49 cents per minute to use its personal computers, nearly twice the price I found at FedEx Kinko’s four blocks away. At the nearby Los Angeles Central Public Library, you could log on for 15 minutes for free.

Copies cost 15 cents per page at the Biltmore’s front desk (or $1.99 per minute to rent a fax-copier in its business center) versus 10 cents or less at nearby copy stores. Sending faxes from the front desk cost $1 per page, comparable to the $1 to $2 charged at the copy stores. Or you could rent the fax-copier at the Biltmore.

An alternative is to take your own laptop computer and printer. Some hotels charge to hook you up; some don’t. In the 2004 lodging survey, about a fifth of hotels said they charged for in-room Internet access.

At the Biltmore and the Palmer House, such access cost $9.95 per 24 hours. Wireless lobby access cost $9.95 per 24 hours at the Biltmore and $5.95 per hour in the Palmer House. By comparison, T-Mobile charges $6 per hour, or $29.99 per month, for wireless access at coffee shops and other outlets.

LuAnn Sudarich, the Biltmore’s director of sales and marketing, says her hotel charges more for some office services to cover salaries and the leasing of equipment. “You’re paying for the labor and the legwork,” she says.

* Before leaving on a trip, search www.mapblast.com or www.mapquest.com for restaurants, duplicating services and other nearby businesses. By entering the hotel’s address, you can find listings by distance. It’s a quick way to get the lay of the land -- and locate cheaper services -- in a strange city.

Jane Engle welcomes comments but can’t respond individually to letters and calls. Write to Travel Insider, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A., CA 90012, or e-mail jane.engle@latimes.com.