FTC Junk Fee Rule: Hotel Hidden Fees Are Now Banned

For years, hotels have advertised one price and charged another. A $89/night room turns into $134 after resort fees, destination fees, and service charges get tacked on at checkout. The FTC finally said enough.

Here's what the new rule actually requires and what it means for you.

What the FTC Junk Fee Rule Requires

The rule is straightforward: hotels must display the total price including all mandatory fees upfront. If a room costs $89 plus a $25 resort fee and a $20 destination fee, the listed price must be $134 — not $89 with the rest buried in fine print.

This applies everywhere a price is shown — on the hotel's own website, on booking platforms, in ads, and in search results. The days of advertising a low base rate and padding the bill at checkout are officially over.

The FTC calls these "unfair or deceptive fees" — charges that are hidden or misleading because they get added after the consumer has already made a decision based on the advertised price.

When It Took Effect

The FTC's Trade Regulation Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees took effect in May 2025. It applies nationwide to hotels, motels, vacation rentals, and short-term lodging of all kinds.

The rule went through years of public comment and legal review before finalization. Hotels had a compliance window, but as of now, every property should be showing total prices upfront.

What Counts as a Junk Fee

If it's mandatory and it's not in the advertised price, it's a junk fee under this rule. The most common ones in hotels:

• Resort fees ($15-50/night) — the biggest offender. Hotels charge these for amenities like pool access, Wi-Fi, and fitness centers that most travelers expect to be included. Las Vegas hotels are notorious for these.
• Destination fees ($15-30/night) — similar to resort fees but branded differently. Common in Nashville, Austin, and other tourism-heavy cities.
• Amenity fees ($10-25/night) — another name for the same thing. The label changes; the charge doesn't.
• Service charges ($5-20/night) — vague fees that don't correspond to any specific service. Sometimes labeled as "facility fees" or "urban fees."

Taxes are not considered junk fees — hotels can still show pre-tax prices (though we think they shouldn't). Optional charges like room service, minibar, or paid parking upgrades are also excluded, since you choose whether to pay them.

The rule targets mandatory charges that aren't optional but get hidden from the headline price.

What It Means for Budget Travelers

In theory, the prices you see should now be the prices you pay. In practice, some hotels are still adjusting — and enforcement takes time.

But here's why this matters most for budget travelers: hidden fees hit the cheapest rooms hardest. A $25 resort fee on a $200 suite is a 12% markup. That same $25 fee on a $65 budget room is a 38% markup. The cheaper your room, the more hidden fees distort the real price.

Before this rule, budget travelers were the most likely to get burned. You'd search for the cheapest hotel, book based on the listed price, and then discover at checkout that it wasn't cheap at all.

With total-price transparency, you can actually compare hotels on what they cost — not what they claim to cost.

The Worst Cities for Hotel Junk Fees

Not all cities are equally bad when it comes to hidden hotel fees. Based on our data tracking budget hotels across major U.S. cities, here's how they rank.

Las Vegas is the worst offender by a wide margin. Strip hotels charge $30-50/night in mandatory resort fees — the highest in the country. A room advertised at $29/night routinely costs $72+ after the resort fee and taxes. The gap between listed and real price on Vegas Strip hotels averages 70-120%. Off-Strip hotels are the escape valve: many charge zero resort fees, bringing all-in prices down to $40-55/night.

Nashville ranks second. Downtown hotels add $15-25/night in destination fees on top of service charges that can push the hidden markup to $30-47/night. Comfort Inn Downtown Nashville lists at $65 but actually charges $112 — a 72% markup. The airport corridor is significantly more transparent, with most hotels there showing prices close to what you'll actually pay.

Austin sits in the middle tier. Hidden fee markups average $12-18/night on budget properties. The fees tend to be labeled as "destination fees" or "amenity fees" and range from $15-30/night. Unlike Vegas, not every Austin hotel charges them — which actually makes comparison shopping harder, because you can't assume all listed prices are equally misleading.

Denver and Chicago have moderate fee problems. Denver's resort fees cluster around $10-20/night, mostly at downtown properties. Chicago's fees show up as "facility fees" or "urban destination charges" in the $10-25/night range, concentrated in the Loop and Magnificent Mile areas.

San Antonio and Orlando have relatively lower hidden fee rates compared to the cities above, though they're not immune. San Antonio's fees tend to spike during major events like Fiesta, while Orlando's cluster around the theme park corridors.

How Hotels Are Responding to the Rule

Hotels have taken several different approaches to the FTC rule, and not all of them are good for consumers.

The honest approach: Some hotels have simply folded their former resort fees into the base room rate. A hotel that used to advertise $89 + $25 resort fee now lists at $114. The total is the same, but the advertised price is transparent. This is what the rule intended.

The creative relabeling approach: Other hotels have restructured their fees to test the rule's boundaries. Instead of a single "resort fee," they break charges into multiple smaller line items — a "housekeeping fee," an "energy surcharge," a "technology fee" — each small enough to seem incidental but collectively adding $20-30/night. Whether this violates the FTC rule depends on enforcement, which is still catching up.

The optional-not-optional approach: Some hotels have converted mandatory fees into technically "optional" charges that are pre-checked or heavily encouraged during booking. A "Wi-Fi upgrade" or "premium amenity package" that's selected by default and easy to miss during checkout. This skirts the rule because the charge is technically optional — even if most guests don't realize they can decline it.

The wait-and-see approach: A number of hotels, especially independent properties and smaller chains, haven't changed anything yet. They're betting that FTC enforcement will be slow and that the penalty for non-compliance is less costly than restructuring their pricing. For travelers booking at these properties, the pre-rule experience remains unchanged.

How to Protect Yourself Regardless of the Rule

Regulation is helpful, but relying on it entirely is risky. Here's how to make sure you never overpay.

Always click through to the final checkout screen. The most reliable way to see the true price is to go through the entire booking flow right up to the payment button. The final screen must show the total, including all fees and taxes. If the number is significantly higher than what was advertised, that's a red flag — and potentially an FTC violation you can report.

Compare the same hotel across multiple platforms. Booking.com, Expedia, and Agoda sometimes display fees differently. One platform might show the all-in price while another still separates the base rate and fees. Checking two or three platforms takes two minutes and can reveal hidden charges you'd otherwise miss.

Look at the cancellation policy alongside the price. Some hotels responded to the FTC rule by offering lower total prices with stricter cancellation terms. A non-refundable rate might look like a deal, but if your plans change, you'll lose the entire amount. Flexible rates typically cost $5-15/night more but can save you hundreds if you need to cancel.

Use tools that show real all-in prices. This is what MyBudgetHotel was built for. We pull the actual checkout price — not the advertised base rate — from multiple booking platforms and display them side by side. The number you see on our site is the number you'll pay.

Filing a Complaint

If you encounter a hotel that's clearly violating the FTC rule — advertising one price and charging a materially different total at checkout — you can file a complaint directly with the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov. Include the hotel name, the advertised price, the actual checkout price, the date, and screenshots if possible. The FTC uses complaint volume to prioritize enforcement, so individual reports do matter.

You can also file with your state attorney general's consumer protection division. Many states have their own price transparency laws that predate the federal rule and may provide additional protections.

How MyBudgetHotel Already Shows Real Prices

We've been showing total all-in prices since day one. Every price on MyBudgetHotel includes the base rate plus all mandatory fees. No surprises. No math required.

The FTC rule is catching the industry up to what we think should have been standard all along.

See real prices for Austin, Nashville, Las Vegas, Chicago, Denver, San Antonio, Orlando, and New Orleans.

Check Resort Fees by City

Want to see which hotels in your destination still rely on resort fees? We track them city by city:

• Austin resort fees
• Nashville resort fees
• Las Vegas resort fees
• Chicago resort fees
• Denver resort fees
• San Antonio resort fees
• Orlando resort fees
• New Orleans resort fees

FTC Source

Read the FTC's official announcement on the junk fees rule. The full text of the rule covers all industries, but the hotel provisions are the most impactful for travelers.

Related Reading

For a deep dive into how hidden fees work in practice, read our Nashville Hotel Hidden Fees breakdown. It's a city-level look at exactly the kind of pricing games the FTC rule is designed to stop.