The FTC Junk Fee Rule One Year Later. What Hotels Are Still Charging You in 2026

The FTC's Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees took effect on May 12, 2025. One year in, what's actually changed for hotel guests, what hasn't, and where hotels are quietly finding new ways to add charges without violating the rule. We've been tracking this from inside the industry.

Short version. Resort fees aren't gone. They're just disclosed earlier. And some hotels have invented new categories of fees that the rule wasn't designed to catch.

What the FTC rule actually does

The rule requires hotels and short-term rentals to display the total price (including all mandatory fees) wherever a rate is shown. That means search results, comparison pages, booking confirmations, and ads.

Resort fees, destination fees, urban fees, amenity fees, and any other mandatory charge has to be baked into the displayed nightly rate. Taxes and government fees can still be shown separately, but everything else the hotel charges must be visible up front.

Penalties are up to $51,744 per violation. The FTC has been active. In April 2026, StubHub paid $10 million to settle similar junk fee allegations under the same rule. Hotels noticed.

What's actually changed

Display compliance is now widespread. Major booking platforms (including Best, Expedia, Booking.com, and Hotels.com) all show total prices by default. The search results page no longer hides $35 a night in resort fees behind a tiny disclosure link.

Average resort fees are still around $35 to $50 a night at urban hotels in New York, Las Vegas, and Miami. That hasn't dropped. It's just visible from the first screen instead of buried in the booking flow. Travelers now see a $245 rate at a Vegas property instead of seeing $189 and being surprised at checkout.

Comparison shopping is much easier. When all the rates on a page include mandatory fees, you can finally compare apples to apples. A $210 hotel with no resort fee was previously beaten in search results by a $179 hotel with a $40 resort fee. The cheaper hotel turned out to be the more expensive one. That's largely gone.

What hasn't changed

Resort fees themselves are not banned. The rule is about disclosure, not about whether the fee can exist. Hotels can still charge them. They just have to be honest about it.

The line between mandatory and optional is still murky in places. A daily pet fee. A late checkout fee. A package handling charge. Some of these can be characterized as optional under the rule and excluded from the displayed total, even though most guests will incur them.

Parking fees are usually excluded. So are minibar charges, in-room dining fees, and incidentals. The rule covers mandatory fees that every guest pays. Optional charges are out of scope.

New fee categories that emerged in 2025-26

Hotels are inventive. Here's what's appeared in the last 12 months that you should watch for.

Late checkout standardization. Hilton standardized $40 to $60 late checkout fees across all its brands in May 2026 (we covered this in a separate post). Other chains followed. What used to be a courtesy is now a transaction at most major brands. It's excluded from the FTC display requirement because it's technically optional.

Early arrival fees. A handful of chains now charge $25 to $50 to access your room before 3pm. This is also excluded from the rule. You see it at checkout when you arrive at 11am from a redeye flight.

Connecting room fees. Some properties now charge $10 to $30 per night for guaranteed connecting rooms when traveling with family. Previously a free request, now a paid amenity.

Sustainability fees. A new category in 2026. $2 to $8 a night, framed as supporting environmental programs. About half of the hotels we've audited disclose this as a mandatory fee. The other half don't include it in the displayed rate and call it optional. The FTC is reportedly looking at this category.

Loyalty card fees. A small number of independent properties now charge non-members a $5 to $15 daily fee as a kind of negative-loyalty penalty. It's disclosed correctly under the rule, but it's a new category.

How to spot and avoid the new fees

Read the fine print on the booking page. Specifically the section labeled "Important Information" or "Property Rules." That's where the optional fees hide.

Search for the word "fee" on the property's page before booking. Most browsers let you do Ctrl-F or Cmd-F. If you see early arrival, late checkout, parking, pet, or sustainability fees, you know what's coming.

If you're arriving early, ask at booking time (not at check-in) whether early access is free. Many hotels still extend it as a courtesy if you ask the right way at the right time.

For late checkout, request it at the front desk the night before. Don't ask the morning of. The night-before request gives the front desk team time to check housekeeping schedules and often results in a free 1 to 2 hour extension.

Connecting rooms. Book as two separate rooms and request connecting in the reservation notes rather than paying a guarantee fee. Worst case you don't get connecting. You'll often get it for free because front desk teams want to help.

What hotels are required to refund

If a hotel charges a mandatory fee that wasn't disclosed at booking, you can usually get it refunded at checkout by pointing to the FTC rule. The hotel knows this. Most will refund without much pushback because they don't want a complaint that might attract regulatory attention.

The script. "This fee wasn't included in my booking confirmation. The FTC rule on disclosure says it should have been. I'd like it removed from my bill."

We've used this exact phrasing four times in 2026. Four out of four times the fee came off.

Which booking platforms are best at total-price display

Compliance varies by platform. Our audit of the top 12 booking platforms in May 2026 found wide differences in how prominently total prices are displayed and whether non-mandatory fees are still surfaced clearly.

Best displays total price including resort, urban, and amenity fees in the initial search results, and surfaces parking and pet fees on the property page. Cashback (10% on all bookings) is calculated on the total price, not just the base rate.

Booking.com and Expedia both show totals in search results and at booking. Some optional fees are easier to find than others. Hotels.com shows total nightly rate but optional fees require clicking into the property page.

A few smaller platforms still surface base rates in search and only add the fees at the booking page. That's a violation. The FTC has cited a small number of these but enforcement is uneven.

What's coming next

Two things to watch in the second half of 2026.

First, expansion of the rule's scope. The FTC has signaled interest in tightening definitions around what counts as mandatory. Sustainability fees, early arrival fees, and certain pet fees may end up reclassified as mandatory under future guidance.

Second, state-level action. California, New York, and Massachusetts have all introduced their own hotel fee transparency rules that go beyond the FTC baseline. Expect more states to follow.

Frequently asked questions

Are hotel resort fees banned in 2026?

No. Resort fees are not banned. The FTC rule that took effect in May 2025 requires hotels to include resort fees and other mandatory charges in the displayed price, but doesn't prohibit the fees themselves. Most hotels still charge them.

What hotel fees am I required to pay?

Any fee disclosed clearly at booking is binding once you accept the reservation. Mandatory resort fees, urban fees, and amenity fees that appear in the total price are payable. Optional fees (parking, late checkout, pet fees) are not mandatory and can sometimes be waived or negotiated.

Can I refuse to pay a hotel resort fee?

If the fee was clearly disclosed at booking, no. If it wasn't disclosed, you can request a refund at checkout by citing the FTC rule on fee disclosure. Most hotels refund undisclosed fees rather than risk a complaint.

Do all booking sites show the full hotel price now?

Most major US-facing platforms (Best, Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, Kayak) display total prices including mandatory fees by default in 2026. A small number of smaller platforms still surface base rates and add fees only at booking. Always check the displayed total before finalizing.

Does the FTC rule apply outside the US?

The FTC rule applies to hotels and rentals booked in the US. EU has its own price-display rules under the Consumer Rights Directive. UK has Advertising Standards Authority rules. Most international destinations now have similar transparency requirements, though enforcement varies.

The Best take

The FTC rule has made hotel pricing harder to game. That's good for travelers and good for honest platforms. But hotels haven't stopped looking for revenue. The new growth area is optional fees that aren't covered by the rule. Late checkout, early arrival, connecting room, sustainability.

The defense is the same as it always was. Read the property page carefully. Ask for waivers politely and at the right time. Book through platforms that show all-in pricing and let you compare honestly. And take the cashback. On a $245 a night Vegas room (resort fee included), the 10% cashback Best pays is $24.50. Per night. For five nights, that's $122.50 back. More than the resort fee itself.

Images: Hero reception desk and front desk via Pexels. All used under license.