Hotels fighting fee proposal for airport shuttles

Dozens of local hotels are fighting a proposed fee that would charge them for picking up passengers in shuttles at Washington Dulles International and Ronald Reagan Washington National airports, arguing that such fees would squeeze an already pinched industry.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which oversees the two airports, is seeking a $2.50 fee on each trip that hotel shuttles take as a way to generate cash after the number of passengers using the airports fell last year. Airport officials also say the fees would cut down on congestion, encouraging hotels to be more efficient with the service.

But hotels have opposed the proposal, with dozens of comments pouring in from small and large chains around each airport. The Alexandria Chamber of Commerce and the city's manager weighed in against it. Some 800 people have signed an online petition.

"The fees would cripple a hotel during a period of significant challenges," wrote Rick Gerhart with Remington Hotels, a Texas firm that manages the Embassy Suites at Dulles. "This is not the time to add a new large-scale expense."

The hotels estimate the fees could cost them each as much $40,000 a year, on top of their existing costs to run the vans. Many hotels are obligated by their parent companies to offer free shuttle service, they said, so they could not pass the charges along to their passengers. The depressed and competitive market would make it tough to tack the fees onto room charges.

The authority estimates that hotel shuttles make about 630 trips each day to Dulles and 700 to Reagan National. But some of the hotel operators have said those numbers underestimate the number of trips, and thus the added cost hotels might face.

Furthermore, they said, adding the fee might increase congestion at the airports. The hotels would run shuttle service less frequently, so more guests would need to take taxis or other vehicles to and from the airports. Or the vans would idle, waiting until they had filled up entirely, causing more curbside tie-ups.

Added costs - or poorer shuttle service - could convince business travelers to choose Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport instead, the hotels said.

BWI charges each shuttle vehicle a $100 annual permit fee, said Maryland Aviation Administration spokeswoman Cheryl Stewart.

Now, the hotels are calling on the airports authority to work with them on an alternative solution.

Authority spokesman Rob Yingling said officials are reviewing the hoteliers' comments. They do not have a timeline for when they plan to vote on the hotel shuttle fees and instead plan to "continue the dialogue" with hotels.

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