Skilled with scalping, hotel make one pay a bomb (5,6)
I believe the answer is:
depth charge
'a bomb' is the definition.
(I know that depth charge is a type of bomb)
'skilled with scalping hotel make one pay' is the wordplay.
'skilled' becomes 'adept' (similar in meaning).
'with scalping' means to remove the first letter (the word is 'scalped' of its top letter).
'hotel' becomes 'h' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'make one pay' becomes 'charge' (charge someone money).
'adept' with its first letter removed is 'dept'.
'dept'+'h'+'charge'='DEPTH-CHARGE'
(Other definitions for depth charge that I've seen before include "it could cause a lot of damage" , "Anti-submarine weapon" , "Anti-submarine explosive" , "Weapon against subs" , "Anti-submarine bomb" .)