Travelers may think this is a development of interest only to members of the industry, but the various resort services fees, fuel surcharges, port fees and various add-on costs make it harder for consumers to understand the real cost of what they are buying.

Consumers are stuck in the middle of a travel-industry squeeze play.

Some travel suppliers, from hotels and airlines to cruise lines, have restructured their prices so they can A) advertise lower costs and B) reduce their commissions to travel agents.

This battle between wholesalers and retailers may sound like an industry skirmish that doesn't directly affect consumers.

But it affects travelers, too. By bolstering their base prices with resort services fees (in the hotel trade), fuel surcharges (in the airline business), port fees (in the cruise industry), and various add-ons (for car rentals), the people who sell travel are making it more difficult for us to see the real cost of what we're buying.

Resort fees

I'm starting with these because many people don't realize they exist - including me, until recently.

In the past few years, some resorts have begun charging extra fees for services that many travelers think will be covered by their room rate. My enlightenment came last month at the Pointe Hilton Resort at Tapatio Cliffs in Phoenix.

The desk clerk explained that my daily room rate was $169 but that my "resort services fee" was $8 more per day per room (plus 89 cents in local taxes). That fee covered local and toll-free calls from my room, the in-room coffee service, daily newspaper, tennis-court time and fitness-center use, rides on a shuttle bus to resort restaurants and recreational facilities, and unlimited faxes (incoming and outgoing). The resort pays travel agents no commission on money that comes in that way.

A Resort spokeswoman later explained that the fee is optional (without it, you pay $1 for each phone call and $10 a day to use the gym), but the desk clerk didn't say that. When I protested, the clerk shrugged sympathetically but did nothing.

I would expect to pay to send or get faxes, and I'm resigned to paying 75 cents or $1 per outgoing call at upscale hotels. But the idea of paying extra to play tennis or ride a stationary bike at a resort quickens my heart rate in a way neither of those exercises ever could.

At first, I hoped these fees were some sort of Arizona anomaly. They're not. At the San Diego Hilton Resort & Spa on Mission Bay, guests often pay $150 and beyond per night for a room - and $10 more per day to use the gym.

The Saddlebrook Resort in Tampa, Fla., assesses a $6 per adult per night "resort fee," which a desk clerk said covers local calls, in-room coffee, daily newspaper, use of the fitness center and "daily housekeeping." Travelers in groups often face a built-in "bellman fee" of $3.50 arriving and $3.50 departing.

The Westin Maui - where brochure rates begin at $280 - assesses an $8.33 daily per room resort fee to cover local and credit-card calls, use of the fitness center, in-room coffee and tea, paper delivery, self-parking and shuttle-bus rides. The resort fee, a reservations operator told me, "is part of the deal. It is not optional."

The bottom line: When checking hotel rates, ask whether there are any added fees, either mandatory or optional, for the hotel's amenities.

Fuel surcharges

When petroleum prices began climbing in 1999, the airlines saw not just a challenge but an opportunity.

Instead of increasing prices to match the increase in expenses, most of the major carriers created "fuel surcharges" earlier this year. In many cases those surcharges were to be added on top of the air fares listed on the first displays seen by travel agents on their reservation-system computer screens. Continental led the way with an announcement in January that is was adding surcharges. Southwest Airlines, resisting, chose to simply adjust its basic prices, but other competitors followed Continental's lead.

This way, the airlines could not only make their prices briefly appear to be lower than they are, but they also could hold the "surcharges" out of the commissionable part of a travel agent's sale. So instead of making $5 by selling a $100 round-trip domestic ticket (the prevailing commission rate is 5 percent), an agent now would make $4 by selling an $80 air fare with a $20 fuel surcharge.

When fuel prices kept rising, the airlines quietly increased their surcharges. On American, for example, an Los Angeles-New York round trip booked Oct. 18 carried fuel surcharges of $20 each way. The bottom line: When comparing air fares, be sure all the price quotes include fuel surcharges and taxes.

Port fees

Port fees include the charges that governments make on ships calling at their waterfront, but over the years, the cruise industry widened the definition to include nongovernmental costs such as stevedore labor expenses. Every cruise line developed its own way of counting port fees.

Many consumer advocates objected to that, and some thought the battle over port fees ended three years ago when Florida's attorney general accused several cruise lines of mislabeling some of their passed-along business expenses to make customers think the fees were government taxes. In response, seven cruise lines, while admitting no wrongdoing, changed their pricing methods.

In recent newspaper ads for a seven-night Caribbean cruise, for instance, Costa Cruises quoted a $499 per person rate in large type and then, in tiny type, noted that port charges and government fees were excluded. A call to Costa reveals that port fees will add $134.75 per person to that price. Recent ads from American Hawaii Cruises, Renaissance Cruises and the fledgling United States Lines follow the same format.