How to Avoid Resort Fees in 2026
Resort fees can add 70 dollars a night. Here is how they work, what the new 2025 rule changed, and five ways to pay less.
A resort fee is the charge you did not agree to when you thought you agreed to a price. It adds 25 to 70 dollars a night for things like Wi-Fi, the gym, two bottles of water, and a pool you may never get in. On a three-night stay that is up to 210 dollars stapled onto a rate that looked like a deal.
The good news for 2026 is that these fees are harder to hide than they used to be. The rules changed, the disclosure got better, and a few simple habits will keep you from ever being surprised at checkout again. Here is how resort fees actually work and how to pay less of them.
What a resort fee really is
A resort fee is a mandatory charge that is not part of the room rate. Hotels break it out so the headline price looks lower than the real one. A room advertised at 149 dollars with a 45 dollar resort fee is really a 194 dollar room. The hotel gets to show the smaller number in search results and collect the bigger one at the desk.
We see the mechanics of this from the inside. Splitting the price lets a property win the sort when you rank by cheapest, then make the margin back on a line you notice too late. Las Vegas is the capital of this practice, where almost every major property on the Strip charges one, but it has spread to city hotels far beyond the desert.
The rule that changed in 2025
In May 2025 a Federal Trade Commission rule on unfair and deceptive fees took effect in the United States. It requires hotels, resorts, and short-term rental platforms to show the total price, including any mandatory resort or destination fee, up front in advertising and search results. The fee did not disappear. It just has to be in the number you see from the start.
What that means for you is simple. The price you compare across sites in 2026 should already include the mandatory fee, so a low base rate can no longer hide a big add-on until the final screen. It also means the old trick of comparing two hotels by their room rate alone is now a mistake, because one total might bundle a fee and the other might not.
Five ways to pay less
You cannot always dodge a resort fee, but you can shrink it or route around it.
Read the total before you pay. Thanks to the new rule the total is easier to find, but always scan the price breakdown for a line called resort fee, destination fee, facility fee, or amenity fee before you enter a card. If a booking flow still buries it, that is your signal to slow down and check the final summary screen.
Book award nights at chains that waive it. Hyatt and Hilton both waive resort fees on stays booked entirely with points. Wyndham often does too, though travelers report it applies unevenly. On Marriott and IHG award bookings the fee can still appear, so open the final price summary before you confirm.
Compare by total, not by nightly rate. A hotel that advertises no resort fee at a slightly higher base rate is frequently cheaper once you add everything up. Sort by the all-in price for your full stay, not the per-night headline.
Use the amenities or ask about the fee. If you are paying 40 dollars a night for a pool, spa, and gym, use them so the fee buys something. If you physically cannot, a polite ask at check-in to waive the fee sometimes works, especially if an amenity is closed for maintenance.
Offset the real total with cashback. The fee is part of what a stay costs, so lower the whole number. Book through Best and you get 10 percent back on the room, which softens the total even when a mandatory fee is unavoidable. On a 194 dollar all-in night, cashback returns nearly 20 dollars.
A worked example
Say you are choosing between two hotels for two nights. Hotel A shows 129 dollars a night with a 39 dollar resort fee. Hotel B shows 155 dollars a night with no fee. Hotel A looks 26 dollars cheaper per night on the headline, but its real nightly cost is 168 dollars against Hotel B at 155. Over two nights, Hotel B saves you 26 dollars, and it looked more expensive the whole time. That is the entire game resort fees play, and reading the total is how you win it.
Common questions about resort fees
A few things we get asked a lot.
Are resort fees legal in 2026? Yes. They are legal, but a 2025 FTC rule now requires the mandatory fee to be included in the total price shown up front rather than revealed at the end. The charge is allowed as long as it is disclosed clearly and early.
How much are hotel resort fees? Most run between 25 and 70 dollars per night. Las Vegas and major resort destinations sit at the higher end, while city hotels that charge a destination fee are often in the 25 to 45 dollar range.
Can you get a resort fee waived? Sometimes. Chains like Hyatt and Hilton waive them on points stays. On paid stays, asking at check-in works occasionally, particularly if an advertised amenity is unavailable during your visit.
Do you pay resort fees on top of the room rate? Yes. A resort fee is charged in addition to the nightly room rate, which is exactly why comparing hotels by the all-in total rather than the headline rate matters so much.
Resort fees by another name
Plenty of city hotels that would never call themselves resorts charge the same kind of fee under a different word. Destination fee, urban fee, amenity fee, facility fee. They cover things like local phone calls, a printed newspaper, a bottle of water, or a fitness class, and they run 25 to 45 dollars a night in cities like New York and San Francisco. The label changes. The mechanic does not.
Short-term rentals play a related game with cleaning fees and service fees that can rival a hotel's resort fee. The 2025 rule now forces those mandatory charges into the upfront total too, so the same habit applies everywhere. Scan for any required line item, whatever it is called, before you decide one option is cheaper than another.
What the fee actually pays for
The typical resort fee bundles Wi-Fi, the gym, the pool, local calls, and a couple of bottles of water. The catch is that most of that used to be free and the rest you may never touch. If a fee genuinely covers a spa, a cabana, and a daily breakfast you would have paid for anyway, it can be fair value. If it is charging 45 dollars for Wi-Fi and a gym you will not set foot in, it is padding.
The test is quick. Add up what you will really use during the stay. If that number comes in under the fee, the fee is a markup dressed up as a bundle, and it belongs in your total-price comparison rather than your list of perks.
Images: Hero by Darrell Fraser and payment photo by Anna Tarazevich, both via Pexels. Las Vegas Strip by Dietmar Rabich via Wikimedia Commons, used under license.
