I don't know why this would be a surprise. If they can charge your estate after you die they will. Why wouldn't they? If you owned a hotel and someone did this in your hotel, would you just eat the cost? What if it happened several times because you get a reputation of not charging?
I don't think insurance would cover this either... but if a hotel could have insurance that covers it, there would be cost associated and they would pass that onto you in the form of a higher room charge... so... I mean, that's just business and it makes sense.
As for me, I wouldn't care after I'm dead. Many years ago I was going in for gall bladder surgery and the hospital asked me at checkin if I wanted to pre-pay. I was amazed they asked such a thing... They had my insurance info and it was all going to be covered... So I told them matter of factly, "Hey, so you have my insurance information already. I might die in this surgery according to the doctor there is a chance of that. Tell you what, if you don't kill me, then when I wake up and am out of the hospital healthy again then you can ask me for money. If I die, then I really don't care if you get paid or not."