Travel Tip: Beware Forced Donations on Your Hotel Bill - My Experience With Chicago's Hotel Burnham

I recently had to spend a night at a pricey hotel in downtown Chicago, the Hotel Burnham. Was not my choice, but seemed pretty nice. In my rush to check out with their express service, I failed to notice that there was a surprise "$1 donation" to an AIDS foundation tacked on to my bill. This caused some problems for me with my expense account since that was not an appropriate expense and I had to try a couple of different approaches to finally get our expense system to handle my report. I also had to make a long-distance call to the hotel to get it taken off.

Any hotel that would try to force their patrons to support a charitable cause by slyly slipping in a donation to their bill is not the kind of hotel I want to patronize. Always check you bill carefully! And avoid hotels that, like the Hotel Burnham, might  take advantage of you in order for them to feel good about helping some cause.

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