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.

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.