Hotel Resort Fees in 2026: One Year After the FTC's Junk Fees Rule
The FTC's rule on hidden fees took effect a year ago. Here's what actually changed, what didn't, and how to avoid resort fee traps in 2026.
One year in, the resort fee fight isn't over
The FTC's Unfair or Deceptive Fees rule took effect on May 12, 2025. The rule was supposed to end "drip pricing," the practice where hotels show you a $189 nightly rate, walk you through five booking screens, and then add a $45 mandatory resort fee at the end. A year later, hotel pricing on the major booking sites mostly does show the all-in number up front. The fight over what that number includes is still going.
The short version of where things stand. The FTC rule does not ban resort fees. It requires the total mandatory price to be displayed up front, more prominently than the base rate. Marriott and Hilton have both faced state-level enforcement actions and class-action settlements that effectively pushed them to display total prices before the FTC rule took effect. Booking.com, Expedia, and the other major OTAs updated their displays in early 2025 to comply. Smaller hotels and direct booking sites have been slower.
What hasn't changed is the fee itself. A property charging a $40 resort fee in 2024 is mostly still charging $40 in 2026. The fee is just disclosed earlier in the process. Travelers can still see it and still avoid it by picking a different hotel. The FTC rule made the comparison easier. It didn't make the fees go away.
What the FTC actually did and didn't do
The Unfair or Deceptive Fees rule has two main requirements. First, businesses must disclose the total price including all mandatory fees clearly and conspicuously, more prominently than any other pricing information. Second, the nature and purpose of any fee must be disclosed before payment.
The rule explicitly does not ban any specific type or amount of fee. It does not require fees to be reasonable. It does not require fees to be tied to actual services. A hotel can charge a $50 "destination fee" for nothing in particular, as long as it shows up in the headline price.
That distinction matters because the most common consumer complaint about resort fees was never just that they were hidden. It was that they were charged for amenities people couldn't use or didn't want. WiFi, gym access, two bottles of water, and a "concierge service" that turned out to be a phone in the lobby. A $50 fee for those amenities is no more reasonable when disclosed up front. It's just visible.
The state-level enforcement that came first
The FTC rule got the headlines, but the real pressure on hotel chains came from state attorneys general before the federal rule took effect. The District of Columbia sued Marriott in 2019 over resort fees. Pennsylvania sued in 2021. Texas attorney general settlements in 2023 and 2024 forced Marriott to display total prices on its website by the end of 2024. Hilton followed in early 2025.
The class-action front has been more active. Plaintiffs have filed dozens of suits against hotel chains under state consumer protection laws, alleging that the fees themselves, not just the disclosure, are deceptive. Some of those cases are working their way through the courts in 2026. The Holland and Knight analysis from April 2026 noted that junk fee class actions are now one of the fastest-growing categories of consumer litigation.
Enforcement on the FTC rule itself has been targeted. The StubHub settlement in April 2026, where the company agreed to refund $10 million for fee violations, was the first major action under the rule. Hotel chains have been watching that case carefully. The signal is that the FTC is not going to police every $40 resort fee, but pattern violations across booking platforms can trigger nine-figure consequences.
How resort fees actually work behind the scenes
The reason resort fees exist as a separate line item, not just folded into the room rate, is that they let hotels keep two sets of books. One for the OTA commission calculation, one for the customer total.
When a hotel lists a room on a booking site, the booking site takes a percentage commission, usually 15 to 25 percent of the room rate. Hotels figured out years ago that a resort fee, separately disclosed, is not part of the room rate that triggers the commission. So a hotel can list a room at $200 plus a $40 resort fee, the customer pays $240, and the booking site only takes commission on the $200. The hotel keeps an extra $6 to $10 that would otherwise have gone to the OTA.
That math is why fees never really go away. Hotels have a strong financial incentive to keep them, regardless of disclosure rules. The way to attack the fees would be to require booking sites to charge commission on the total. The FTC rule didn't do that. State AG settlements haven't done it either.
What's actually disclosed in 2026
If you book through a major OTA in May 2026, you should see a total nightly price including taxes and mandatory fees by the second screen of the booking flow. The line item breakdown is usually one click away. Hotels still try to make the breakdown small and the headline rate big, but the all-in number is no longer hidden.
Booking direct on hotel chain websites is now mostly compliant too. Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, and IHG all show all-in pricing on the search results page. Smaller chains and independent hotels are inconsistent. Boutique hotels in particular are slow movers, partly because their booking technology stacks haven't been updated to handle the disclosure logic, partly because compliance enforcement on small operators has been minimal.
The biggest gap in 2026 is third-party metasearch. Google Hotels, Trivago, and Kayak technically pull rates from connected OTAs and direct sites, so the displayed rate depends on the source. Cross-checking the same hotel across three platforms still surfaces 15 to 30 percent rate variance, often because mandatory fees are handled differently in each feed.
How to actually save on hotel bookings now
The fees are visible. The strategy now is comparison and timing. A few things that work in 2026.
Sort by total price, not nightly rate. Most booking sites default to nightly rate. Switch the sort to total cost. Two hotels with the same headline rate can have a $200 difference across a five-night stay because of fee structure. The all-in sort surfaces the actual best deal.
Check the fee line item, not just the total. Hotels charging large resort fees are often properties with otherwise inflated base rates. The fee acts as cover for a high all-in price. Hotels with lower or zero resort fees tend to have base rates that are closer to the all-in. Both signals matter.
Use cashback to offset the fees. Best returns 10 percent of the room rate. On a $250 nightly rate plus $40 resort fee, the cashback is $25. Over a five-night stay, that's $125 back. The fees still exist. Cashback just absorbs them. The net cost of the trip drops below what the same booking on a fee-disclosing OTA would cost.
Avoid the worst offenders. Las Vegas resort fees still average $45 to $50 per night across the major Strip properties. Honolulu and Orlando both run high. New York City has a slightly different version called a "destination fee" that runs $35 to $45. If you're price-sensitive, those four cities have the highest fee load in the country, and choosing properties without the fee is a real lever.
Frequently asked questions
Did the FTC rule eliminate resort fees? No. The rule requires fees to be disclosed up front, but does not ban them. Hotels can still charge resort fees, destination fees, and amenity fees, and most still do. The rule changed disclosure, not the fees themselves.
Can I refuse to pay a resort fee at check-in? Generally no, if the fee was disclosed at booking. The fee is a contractual part of the rate. Some hotels will waive the fee for loyalty status members or as a service recovery gesture if you're unsatisfied with amenities, but there's no legal basis to refuse.
Why do hotels charge resort fees if they could just include them in the room rate? Because OTA commissions are calculated on the base room rate, not the total. Splitting out a fee lets hotels keep more of the per-night revenue rather than paying commission on it. The financial incentive to keep fees as a separate line item is the reason they persist.
Are vacation rentals subject to the FTC junk fees rule? Yes. The rule covers short-term lodging, including vacation rentals booked through platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo. Cleaning fees, service fees, and host fees must all be disclosed up front. Compliance has been more visible on those platforms than on small independent hotels.
The bottom line for travelers
The FTC rule was a real win for transparency. Booking is less of a trap than it was two years ago. The fees themselves haven't changed much. The strategy that beats them isn't policy. It's comparison, timing, and recouping cost through cashback.
Best returns 10 percent of room rate on every hotel booking. On the kinds of trips where resort fees pile up the worst, like Vegas weekends or Hawaii weeks, the cashback closes the gap. The fees are still there. They just hurt less.
Images: Hero hotel front desk and lobby reception. Sourced from Unsplash, used under license.
