Hotel resort fees and the FTC's rule: what changed, and how to get your money back
Key Highlights
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A federal rule now requires every hotel, short-term rental site and ticket seller in the United States to show your full price, fees included, before you get anywhere near checkout. It has been the law since May 12, 2025. Six hotel companies have paid Texas anyway for not doing it, and in April 2026 the Federal Trade Commission opened its own first case under the rule against a $10 million ticket seller, not a hotel at all.
That gap between the rule and what actually happens at checkout is why this matters if you have a hotel booking coming up. The rule does not ban fees. It will not stop a resort from charging you $50 a night for a pool you never used. What changed is whether that charge has to be visible before you pay, and what happens when a site hides it anyway. Both of those now have real enforcement history behind them, and a real process behind getting your money back.
- The rule: since May 12, 2025, US hotels, short-term rentals and ticket sellers must show the total price, mandatory fees included, more prominently than any other price on the page.
- It doesn't ban fees. A hotel can still charge a resort fee. It just cannot hide it in a vague "taxes and fees" line until checkout.
- Six hotel companies have settled with Texas over hidden fees since 2023, most recently Hyatt for $1.25 million and Booking.com for $9.5 million.
- The FTC's own first case under the rule landed in April 2026, a $10 million settlement with StubHub over ticket pricing, not hotels.
- If a site hides a fee from you, you can file with the FTC and your state attorney general in about ten minutes combined, and card issuers will often reverse an undisclosed charge on request.
Applies to you if you've booked, or plan to book, a US hotel or short-term rental online
The rule covers anyone selling short-term lodging or live-event tickets to people in the United States online: hotels booking directly, chains, independent properties, vacation rental platforms, and third-party sites like online travel agencies such as Booking.com, Expedia and Priceline. It does not matter where the company is headquartered. If the checkout page is selling a US stay or a US event ticket, the disclosure requirement applies.
It also covers what you already booked. The rule is about the price shown at the time of sale, so a stay you booked after May 12, 2025 should have carried its full price, mandatory fees included, at every step from search results to final checkout. A stay booked before that date is not covered retroactively, but a fee you are charged now, on a booking made now, is.
What the FTC's rule actually requires
The rule requires one thing: show the total price, mandatory fees included, and make that total price clear, conspicuous, and most prominent compared with any other price on the page. That total has to appear the first time you see a price, not at the last screen before you pay.
A seller can still itemize fees separately below that total. The rule also bars misrepresenting what a fee is actually for, so a charge labeled a "cleaning fee" has to be a cleaning fee.
The Commission finalized the rule in December 2024 on a bipartisan vote, and it took effect 120 days later, on May 12, 2025. Every US hotel, rental platform and ticket marketplace has now been operating under it for well over a year. Most large platforms built the total-price display the rule requires. A handful of companies still got caught not doing it, which is the part the rest of this guide is about.
What to do right now: check the price, then complain if it's wrong
You do not need a lawyer or a lawsuit to act on this. There is a short, concrete sequence, and most of it takes minutes.
- Before you book, compare the price shown in search results to the price shown at checkout. If the checkout total is higher and the difference is not a tax the government charges, that gap is exactly what the rule was written to stop.
- Read the fee's own label. "Resort fee," "destination fee," "property service charge" and "amenity fee" all describe the same kind of charge; a vague "taxes and fees" line that bundles a government tax with the company's own charge is one of the specific practices Texas cited against Booking.com.
- If you were charged a fee that was not shown before you paid, ask the property or platform for a refund of that specific line item first. Screenshot the price you were originally shown, if you can.
- If that does not work, file with the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov and with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at consumerfinance.gov/complaint. Both take under five minutes and both are free.
- Also file with your state attorney general's consumer protection division. Texas has built six settlements this way since 2023, and a state complaint does not require you to also file federally.
- Dispute the charge with your card issuer as a billing error if the property will not budge. A fee that was not disclosed at the time of sale is a strong chargeback case, and issuers process these routinely.
We'd file the CFPB complaint before the FTC one if you only have time for one. The FTC's complaint database mostly feeds pattern-detection for future enforcement, while the CFPB is required to forward your complaint to the company directly and log its response, which sometimes gets a refund moving faster.
What it actually costs you: resort fees by hotel chain
Resort fees are the fee type at the center of most of these cases. NerdWallet's analysis of 160 hotels, updated in August 2026, found an overall average of $33 a night where one was charged, and the fee varies a lot by chain.
The range runs roughly $15 to $50 a day depending on the property. It is the same kind of gap between the advertised price and the real one that shows up at all-inclusive resorts, just itemized here instead of bundled into the room rate. We'd treat any resort fee over $40 a night as reason enough to compare the same room on a second site before booking, since that is above where most chains land.
| Chain | Average resort fee per night (when charged) |
|---|---|
| Marriott | 50 |
| Hyatt | 33.80 |
| Hilton | 33 |
| IHG | 32.57 |
| Wyndham | 25 |
Fox News reported the chain breakdown in March 2026, citing the same NerdWallet data. Marriott properties that charge a resort fee at all charge the highest average of the five chains shown; Wyndham charges the lowest. A five-night stay at the Marriott average adds $250 to a bill that a search-results page may never have shown you, which is the exact number the disclosure rule exists to surface before you book, not after you check out.
The exceptions people get wrong
The rule is a disclosure requirement, not a fee ban. The FTC's own plain-language guidance says it directly: "Even with the Rule in place, sellers can still charge fees. But the Rule means sellers have to tell you the truth about the price they give you."
A hotel can charge $75 a night for a resort fee and stay fully compliant. The only requirement is that the $75 be part of the total price you see before you pay, never a surprise that shows up after.
Two other distinctions trip people up. Government taxes are not covered by this rule the same way company fees are: sellers must separate taxes from mandatory company fees rather than blend them into one line. But the rule does not regulate what governments charge in tax. It also applies to short-term lodging and live-event ticketing specifically, so it does not reach restaurant surcharges, airline seat and baggage fees, or car rental add-ons, even though those get lumped into the same "junk fee" conversation in the press.
There is also a real enforcement caveat worth being honest about. Law professor Cathy Mansfield told CNBC that staffing cuts at the FTC and the CFPB could slow how aggressively the rule gets enforced going forward. That is one more reason the complaint paths above matter: a state attorney general's office, not only the federal agencies, has been where most of the actual money has come from so far.
Who's already been caught, and what happened to them
Texas has been the most active enforcer, and it started years before the federal rule existed. Attorney General Ken Paxton has now settled with six hotel companies since 2023 over the same core practice: hiding a mandatory fee until checkout.
The first was Marriott, in May 2023, requiring the chain to list resort fees separately from taxes and disclose the total price as the most prominent figure on the page. Five more followed the same pattern: Omni, Choice Hotels, Hilton, Booking Holdings, and, most recently, Hyatt.
The $9.5 million Booking Holdings settlement, announced in August 2025, is the largest of the six. Texas alleged that Booking, which also runs Priceline and Kayak, lured shoppers with room rates that were not actually available, then buried the real mandatory fees inside a "Taxes and Fees" line that mixed them with money owed to the government. The $1.25 million Hyatt settlement followed in December 2025, over the same pattern: a headline rate that attracted the booking, and a mandatory fee disclosed late enough that most guests would not notice until the total had already changed.
The federal side moved slower, and its first case was not about hotels at all. In April 2026, the FTC settled with StubHub for $10 million, alleging the ticket marketplace failed to show the full price, mandatory fees included, in its first three pricing displays. The case is narrow by design: StubHub must refund consumers who bought tickets specifically between May 12 and May 14, 2025, the three days around that year's NFL schedule release, which is when the FTC says the violations it is settling occurred.
What's still moving: the bill that hasn't passed yet
Congress has its own version of this fight, and it is not law yet. The Hotel Fees Transparency Act passed the US House by voice vote in April 2025 and has not passed the Senate as of this writing.
If it does pass, it would write the FTC's disclosure requirement directly into federal statute, which matters because a statute is harder for a future FTC to weaken than a rule the current Commission wrote on its own. We'd bank on the rule already in effect rather than wait on the Senate bill, since a calendar placement in April 2025 with no vote since is not a sign of momentum.
Some of the largest platforms did not wait for either one. Airbnb announced in April 2025 that it would show the total price, cleaning and service fees included, worldwide before checkout, a change that went further than the FTC rule technically requires since Airbnb is not exclusively a US platform. That is the pattern worth watching: the companies with the most to lose from a public enforcement case are moving faster than the law that would force them to.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it illegal for a hotel to charge a resort fee?
No. Charging the fee is legal. What is illegal, under the FTC's rule since May 12, 2025, is not showing that fee as part of the total price before you book. A hotel that discloses a $50 resort fee clearly, at the first price you see, is complying with the law.
How do I get a resort fee refunded?
Ask the property or the site that sold you the room first, and screenshot the original price if you have it. If that fails, file with the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov and with your state attorney general, then dispute the charge with your card issuer as a billing error. Texas's six settlements since 2023 all started as consumer complaints to that office.
Does the rule cover Airbnb and Vrbo, not just hotels?
Yes. The rule covers short-term lodging generally, which includes vacation-rental platforms, not only traditional hotel chains. Airbnb announced its own worldwide total-price display in April 2025, ahead of what the US rule specifically requires. A fee dispute is a different problem from booking a listing that turns out to be fake entirely, which has its own refund path.
Are hotel resort fees going away?
Not on current evidence. The rule bans hiding the fee, not the fee itself, and NerdWallet's 2026 data still found an average nightly resort fee of $33 where one was charged. What has changed is where you see that number: it now has to appear before you pay, not after.
What is the Hotel Fees Transparency Act, and has it passed?
It is a bill that would write the FTC's disclosure rule into federal statute. The House passed it in April 2025. It has not passed the Senate and is not law as of this article's publication.
Can I dispute a hidden hotel fee with my credit card company?
Yes, and it is often the fastest path. A charge that was not part of the price disclosed to you at the time of sale is a standard billing-error dispute, and card issuers process these without requiring proof of a government finding against the merchant.
Key Takeaways
- Since May 12, 2025, US hotels, rentals and ticket sellers must show the total price, mandatory fees included, before checkout.
- The rule does not ban resort fees. It bans hiding them until after you have already committed to buying.
- Texas has settled with six hotel companies since 2023; the FTC's own first case, against StubHub, landed in April 2026.
- An undisclosed fee is worth a complaint to the FTC, your state attorney general, and a chargeback request to your card issuer.
- The Hotel Fees Transparency Act would make this permanent federal law, but it is still stuck in the Senate.
If your next trip involves splitting a hotel bill with a group, the fee question gets harder to untangle after the fact. Planning the total cost, resort fee included, before anyone books is the version of this problem tools like TripProf are built to catch early, alongside the rest of a group's shared budget.
Last verified against the FTC's own rule page and the Texas Attorney General's press releases on September 17, 2026.
Sources
- FTC: Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees, Frequently Asked Questions: the rule's own text on what must be disclosed
- FTC Consumer Advice: what the rule means for you: the plain-language confirmation that fees are not banned, only disclosure is required
- FTC press release, December 2024: the rule's finalization and effective date
- FTC v. StubHub Holdings: the agency's first enforcement case under the rule, April 2026
- Texas Attorney General: Booking Holdings settlement: $9.5 million, August 2025
- Texas Attorney General: Hyatt settlement: $1.25 million, December 2025
- Texas Attorney General: Marriott agreement: May 2023, the first of the six
- NerdWallet: resort fee analysis of 160 hotels: updated August 2026
- Fox News: hotel fee breakdown by chain: March 2026, citing NerdWallet
- CNBC: what to do if you're charged an undisclosed fee: May 2025
- GovTrack: Hotel Fees Transparency Act (H.R. 1479) status: passed House, pending Senate
- FTC complaint portal: reportfraud.ftc.gov
- CFPB complaint portal: consumerfinance.gov/complaint
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