Want a lounge chair by the hotel pool? It may cost you extra
With sunshine and temperatures in the 70s during Thanksgiving weekend in Phoenix, Tom McKnew and his family did what any visitor would do at a luxury desert resort: headed for the pool.
The sprawling pool complex at The Phoenician was packed with sunbathers - with one notable exception. McKnew spotted a section on the upper level with a slew of unoccupied lounge chairs. He inquired and was told they had to be reserved for the day. For $50 per person.
"It was beyond the point of crazy,'' the 48-year-old commercial mortgage banker from San Francisco said. "They had all these chairs, and nobody wants to pay extra, and everybody's on top of each other across the pool. It's not a nice experience.''
Hotels and resorts have long charged for cabanas and daybeds, those cushy havens of shade and privacy at the pool or beach that can add several hundred dollars or more to a stay.
