Resort Fees in 2026: What They Cost and How to Avoid Them

You booked a room for 120 dollars a night. At checkout the bill says 162. Nobody upgraded you and nobody raided the minibar. The extra 42 dollars is a resort fee, and it is one of the most disliked charges in travel for a simple reason. You pay it whether or not you use a single thing it claims to cover.

Resort fees have crept up for years, and in 2026 the rules around them finally changed. Here is what they actually are, what the new federal pricing rule means for you, and how to stop handing over money for a pool you never swim in.

What a resort fee actually is

A resort fee is a mandatory daily charge added on top of the advertised room rate. In the US it averages about 42 dollars a night in 2026, and typically runs anywhere from 25 to 70 dollars. On the Las Vegas Strip, most big hotels sit between 45 and 55 dollars before tax.

The key word is mandatory. Unlike a minibar or a spa treatment, you cannot decline it. It attaches to the room, so two guests staying the same three nights pay the same fee even if one of them never leaves the room and the other lives at the pool.

What it supposedly covers

Hotels justify the fee by bundling amenities into it. The usual list is wifi, pool and gym access, local phone calls, a newspaper nobody reads, bottled water, and sometimes parking. Some properties rebrand it as a destination fee or an amenity fee, but the mechanics are identical.

The problem is that most of these are things travelers expect to be free, or things they will not use. You are charged for gym access on a work trip where you never pack running shoes. You pay for two pool towels on a rainy city break. The value rarely matches the number on the bill.

Why hotels lean on them

Resort fees are not really about amenities. They are a pricing tactic. By splitting the true cost of a room into a low headline rate plus a separate fee, a hotel looks cheaper in search results while collecting the same total. For years, booking platforms often showed the base rate first and buried the fee until the final screen.

There is a commission angle too. Hotels usually pay online travel agencies a cut of the room rate, often 15 to 25 percent. Resort fees have historically fallen outside that commission, so a dollar collected as a fee is worth more to the hotel than a dollar collected as room rate. That quiet incentive is a big reason the fees exist at all. We wrote more about how the pieces of a nightly rate fit together in our look at how hotel dynamic pricing works.

The rule that changed the game in 2025

In January 2025 the Federal Trade Commission finalized its Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees, widely called the junk fees rule. Compliance became mandatory on May 12, 2025. It requires hotels, short-term rentals, and booking platforms to show the total price, fees included, whenever they display a price at all.

In plain terms, the resort fee can still exist, but it can no longer hide. The all-in number has to appear upfront, so a room that lists at 120 with a 42 dollar fee now has to show something close to 162 from the start. Violations can trigger civil penalties of up to 53,088 dollars per instance, which is why the industry moved fast to comply.

This is good news, but it does not make the fee disappear. It just makes it visible. You still pay it unless you take steps to avoid it.

How to stop overpaying

Start by sorting on total price, not the nightly rate. Now that all-in pricing is the law, the true cost is easier to compare across properties. A room that looks 20 dollars cheaper per night can lose that lead once a fee is added, so let the total decide.

Book with points where you can. Many large US hotel chains waive resort and destination fees entirely when you pay for the room with reward points rather than cash. If you have a stash of points sitting unused, a fee-heavy property is exactly where to spend them.

Pick properties that advertise no fees. Plenty of hotels, especially smaller independent ones, run a zero-fee policy and say so. If a facility charge looks unreasonable for a basic room, it is often cheaper to book a slightly pricier hotel that bundles nothing extra.

Check your loyalty status. Elite tiers at some chains waive these fees as a perk. If you are close to a status threshold, the math can tip in favor of consolidating your stays.

If you get charged a fee you were never told about

The 2025 rule gives you real footing here. If a fee was not disclosed in the upfront price when you booked, raise it at the front desk first and ask for it to be removed. Keep your booking confirmation showing the total you agreed to.

If the hotel refuses and the charge was genuinely hidden, a credit card dispute is your backstop. Our step-by-step guide on how to dispute a hotel charge and actually win walks through the process, from the front desk to a chargeback.

One more way to shrink the sting. Booking your hotel through Best returns 10 percent of the room cost as cashback. It will not erase a resort fee, but on a three night stay it puts real money back in your pocket, and it stacks on top of whatever rate you find. Combined with all-in pricing, it is the closest thing to seeing the honest cost of a stay and getting a slice of it back.

Common questions

What is the average resort fee in 2026? About 42 dollars per night in the US, with a typical range of 25 to 70 dollars. Las Vegas Strip hotels mostly charge 45 to 55 dollars before tax.

Are resort fees legal? Yes, but since May 2025 the FTC junk fees rule requires the fee to be included in the total price shown upfront. Hiding it until checkout is now a deceptive practice.

How do I avoid resort fees? Sort by total price, book with reward points at chains that waive fees, choose hotels that advertise no fees, and use elite loyalty status where it applies.

Can I dispute a resort fee? If it was not disclosed upfront when you booked, yes. Ask the front desk to remove it first, and if that fails, file a credit card dispute for a charge you did not agree to.

Images: Hero resort pool via Pexels. Hotel gym by KLN CT, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Hotel reception via Pexels.