The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1904-09-02
ODD HOTEL CHARGES
WAYS THEY HAVE OF TIGHTENING
ONES PURSE IN EUROPE.

Items In the Bills That Are Not APP
preciated by the victims--One Place
Where You Pay For Fodder Whcth-
er You Have. Horse or Not.
Most British hotels adhere to a
stereotyped list Of charges, though oc-
casionally travellers come upon strange
exactions in out of the way places.
British hostelries, however, are far
behind foreigners in the variety and
strangeness of their charges Nearly
every European country has some Curl
osity of it's own.
Many hotels In the Tyrol charge I'M
der the heading of 'office" to cover the
tlerk's time wasted in looking up in
formation about trains and attending
to letters. In some parts of south Ger
many travellers are invariably charged
for soap, whether they bring their own
or not.
Some small country hotels in north
ern Spain supply their visitors with
nightshirts, for which a charge is
made, and all over the country luggage
not kept m the visitors bedroom is
charged special storage fee. French
provincial hotels are proverbially mod
crate, but there Is hotel at Dijon
which charges all its visitors for
| fires" in summer and winter alike.
Old fashioned hotels in Vienna make
a charge for brushing Clothes" and
visitors are expected to leave their ex-
| ternal garments outside their bedroom
doors on retiring.
use Of dark room, FORM" appeared
in the bill Of an amateur photographer
known to the writer, who changed his
plates in the bathroom Of big hotel in
the same city.
Russia beats the world for strange
hotel charges. In all but first class ho-
tells bedroom towels are charged for,
and visitors, after paying about 4
shillings for bath, are required to
pay an additional sixpence each per
towel.
Country hotels supply beds and mat
tresses, but charge separately for
blankets, sheets and pillows, the
theory being that all sensible travellers
bring their own. Where there are no
railways, the posthouse keepers are al
lowed by law to charge travellers for
fodder for one horse" whether the
horse be kept at the inn or not
Heavy taxation sometimes leads to
curious hotel charges. Many Greek
hotels charge 10 lepta "a penny
night for matches. In Italy, where
the salt tax is outrageously high, land
lords Of mn hn ho1f
per head for salt. They also invari-
ably charge percentage on postage
stamps bought at the inn.
use Of toilet necessaries' is respon-
sible for 30 confines threepence) Of
most Corsican hotel bills. At Ajac-
clio some. of the better class hotels
charge for. table decorations" and
any one who wishes to avoid this ex-
action should instruct the head waiter
to put no flowers on his table. The
item flights in public rooms" appears
beside bedroom lights" in many Greek
hotel bills.
In Sofia hotel keepers have to pay
special tax for the maintenance Of
the police force, and they extract this
from their visitors by charging spe-
cially for hot water.
Most Bulgarian hotels charge q shil-
ling to any one who comes in after IL
o'clock at night and to any one who
comes down to breakfast after 10.
There is hotel restaurant in Bucha-
rest which widely advertises Hunga-
rian hotel as its great attraction, but
charges sixpence for music In all its
bills.
In Roumania, as IN Russia, bedding
Is universally charged for. Roumanian
country hotels charge fixed price, ac
cording to the visitors rank, mer-
chant paying only two-thirds Of the
amount debited to noble.
In northern Roumania q travellers
paying capacity is estimated according
to the number Of horses he travels
with. The basis Is one horse, and 10
per cent is added to the bill for each
additional animal.
Servia, however, beats the world for
the variety Of its hotel bills. In all but
the best class hotels table linen, bed
ding, writing materials, hot water,
towels and services Of valet" are put
down separately in the bill. A Bel
grade hotel some years ago installed q
lift, charging visitors penny for every
ascent or descent
The rooms Of Servian country inns
contain nothing but beds and chairs,
and If the visitor objects to dress in
the common lavatory he is charged ex-
ira for towels, soap, water and use Of
washhand stand.
But perhaps the strangest hotel
charge on the continent is that Of a
big Copenhagen temperance hotel,
which charges sixpence day to every
visitor who smokes on the premises
Parsons Weekly.