Hidden extras on tours: how a low price becomes an ordinary one

You open a website or a group chat, see a tour for 25 or 30 dollars, feel pleased with the bargain and book it. Then on the day it turns out that another ten dollars needs to be added. And then another five.

The final figure ends up the same as everyone else charges, only with a bad taste left behind. Let us go through how this works, which extras are genuine and which are made up, and how an understated price can be spotted before you book.

How it works

The operator deliberately lowers the headline figure in order to stand out from competitors. The real cost is topped up later.

Right at the end of the description, in small print or somewhere between the lines, the compulsory extras appear. The wording is nearly always the same:

• A government environmental levy, 10 dollars
• An entrance ticket to the reserve, 10 dollars
• Hire of life jackets or equipment, 5 to 10 dollars

On their own each looks like small change. Together they turn a 30 dollar tour into a standard 40.

Where the catch is

Let us be clear straight away, because it matters and because we work in this market ourselves: some of these extras are real.

Entry to the Ras Muhammad National Park is a genuine fee. The port fee on yacht trips is genuine. A ticket to go inside the Pyramid of Cheops costs around 1500 EGP and is genuine too. On our own tour pages these amounts are listed under "Not included", and we charge them separately, exactly like everyone else.

The catch is not the existence of an extra charge. It lies in three things.

1. The fee is invented, or its size is inflated

The most commonly invented one is the "government environmental levy". No such charge exists for tourists.

There is no entrance fee for climbing Mount Sinai either. The only money you can spend there goes on a camel up to the steps and a woollen blanket at the summit, and both are optional.

2. The extra is hidden

Formally it is stated. Just not next to the price, where people actually look, but in the last paragraph of the description, set in smaller type than the rest.

This is the main giveaway. An honest extra sits in the same place as the price rather than hiding from it.

3. Something compulsory is presented as optional

If you simply will not be allowed into the water without a life jacket, that is not an option and not "hire if you wish". It is part of the price that was not shown up front.

The distinction is simple: an option is something you can turn down and still go.

Why the tactic works

It is built around the moment. Once a tourist has arrived on site or is sitting on the bus, nobody is going to make a scene over 10 or 15 dollars and ruin their own day.

At that point it no longer matters what the charge is called: a jacket, an entrance, the environment. The person simply hands over the money and carries on.

That is precisely what the seller is counting on. The decision gets made where saying no is awkward.

🔍 How to spot an understated price in advance

Before booking, open the "Not included" section. Any decent description has one, and it is worth reading before the price itself.

Then three questions:

• Are there compulsory items in it? Entrance, fees, required equipment are not options. Add them to the price and compare the full amount instead.
• Is a specific figure given? "Reserve entry, 5 dollars" can be checked. An "environmental levy" with no amount and no explanation of what it is deserves a direct question.
• Does the amount match what others charge? If entry to the park costs 5 dollars everywhere and 15 with one seller, the park is not the reason.

A normal picture looks like this: a below-average price plus the extras listed honestly right beside it, with amounts. Then you add up the full cost and choose with your eyes open.

In short

A low price is not in itself a sign of deception, and an extra charge is not in itself a sign of dishonesty. The sign is the gap between what is shown in large type and what you end up paying.

A hidden extra is one case of the same approach covered in our article on the tactics used when selling tours: first create a comfortable impression, then present a fait accompli.

Our prices, and what they do not include, are set out in the tour catalogue. Compare full amounts, not shop-window ones.