A resort fee (or "destination fee") is a mandatory daily charge some hotels add on top of the room rate — one of the most common hidden hotel fees. It is not part of the price you first see, it is not optional, and it is often not revealed until you reach the final payment screen or, worse, the front desk. This guide explains where these fees come from, the new rules that force hotels to show the true total, and how to see the real, all-in price before you commit.
1. What are hidden hotel fees and resort fees?
A hidden hotel fee is any mandatory charge that is not included in the headline room rate you first see. The room might be advertised at $189 a night, but the amount that leaves your account is higher, because taxes and one or more compulsory fees are stacked on after you have already decided. The most notorious of these is the resort fee, sometimes rebranded as a "destination fee", "amenity fee", "facility fee" or "urban fee" so it sounds like a service rather than a surcharge.
The defining feature of a resort fee is that it is not really optional. It is charged per room, per night, to every guest, regardless of whether you touch the pool, the gym, the "free" bottled water or the Wi-Fi it claims to bundle. Because it applies automatically, it functions as part of the price of the room, even though it is presented as something separate. That gap between the advertised number and the number you actually pay is the whole problem, and it is why regulators and consumer advocates have spent years pushing back on the practice.
These charges matter because they distort comparison. When one hotel quotes $189 with a $45 resort fee and another quotes $210 with no fee, the second is cheaper, but the first looks better at a glance. Hidden fees quietly punish the traveller who compares on the advertised price, and they reward the property that hides the most. Understanding them is the first step to not overpaying.
2. The most common junk fees
Hidden charges come in a handful of recurring shapes. Learning to recognise them means you are never surprised at checkout. The usual suspects are:
- Resort and destination fees. A flat mandatory charge per night, often $25 to $50 or more, claimed to cover amenities such as the pool, gym, Wi-Fi or local "experiences". It applies whether you use them or not.
- Early check-in and late check-out fees. A surcharge to enter your room before the standard time or stay past it. Sometimes waived on request, often not.
- Wi-Fi and "premium" internet fees. Basic Wi-Fi may be included, but a faster tier, or any connection at all in some properties, can carry a daily charge.
- Parking fees. Both self-parking and valet can add a significant daily cost, particularly at city-centre and resort properties. This one is genuinely avoidable if you do not bring a car.
- "Urban" and amenity fees. The city-hotel version of a resort fee, dressed up as covering local calls, a newspaper or a fitness centre you may never visit.
Not all of these are equal. A parking fee is a true optional charge if you can choose not to park a car there. A resort or urban fee, by contrast, is unavoidable for every guest, which is precisely why it attracts the most scrutiny. The practical skill is separating the fees you can decline from the ones baked into every stay, then folding the unavoidable ones into your comparison from the start.
3. The new rules on junk-fee transparency
The rules changed meaningfully in 2025. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission's Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees took effect on 12 May 2025 and targets exactly the bait-and-switch pricing described above in the live-event ticketing and short-term lodging industries, including hotels. Its core requirement is straightforward: whenever a business offers, displays or advertises a price, it must clearly and conspicuously show the true total price inclusive of all mandatory fees.
In plain terms, a hotel can no longer advertise $199 a night and then reveal a compulsory $39 resort fee only at the final step. Under the rule, that resort fee has to be baked into the headline total from the moment a price is shown, because a reasonable guest would expect it to be part of the cost of the stay. The FTC's own guidance on the rule uses close to this exact example.
It is important to be precise about what the rule does and does not do. It does not ban resort fees, and it does not cap how much a hotel can charge. Businesses keep full flexibility on pricing; they simply have to tell the whole truth up front. Government taxes and genuinely optional add-ons can still be listed separately from the headline total, but they must be disclosed clearly before you pay, not sprung on you afterwards. The FTC has estimated the rule will save consumers a large amount of wasted time otherwise spent hunting for the real total. For travellers, the takeaway is simple: the advertised price and the price you pay are supposed to be far closer than they used to be, and any booking screen that still hides a mandatory fee until checkout is a warning sign.
4. How to see the true, all-in price before booking
Rules help, but the traveller still has to look. The reliable way to avoid a nasty surprise is to price every stay as a total, not a nightly teaser. Here is the practical routine:
- Always advance to the final price before comparing. Click through toward checkout, or find the full breakdown, so taxes and mandatory fees are visible. Compare the all-in totals of two hotels, never their headline rates.
- Look specifically for the word "fee". Scan the price breakdown for "resort fee", "destination fee", "amenity fee" or "facility fee". If one is listed, add it to the nightly cost yourself before you judge the deal.
- Check the property's own fine print. Many hotel listings state resort fees in a "fees and policies" section. A charge that will be collected on arrival, rather than at online checkout, is easy to miss.
- Separate avoidable from unavoidable. Parking and premium Wi-Fi may not apply to you. A resort or urban fee will. Only fold the unavoidable ones into your comparison, but never ignore them.
- Prefer a platform that shows the price all-in. A booking tool that includes taxes in the number and flags any hotel-charged resort fee up front removes the guesswork entirely.
Consumer finance guides make the same point repeatedly. Advice from NerdWallet stresses reading the full fee breakdown before booking rather than trusting the advertised nightly rate, and trade research from the U.S. Travel Association underlines how large accommodation spending is across the industry, which is exactly why small per-night fees, multiplied across every stay, add up to real money over a year. The habit that protects you is unchanged: judge the total, not the teaser.
The comparison below shows how the stack works, using an illustrative example rather than any specific hotel.
| Line item (illustrative example) | Advertised price | All-in price |
|---|---|---|
| Room rate, per night | $189 | $189 |
| Estimated taxes | Not shown up front | + $26 |
| Mandatory resort / destination fee | Not shown up front | + $45 |
| True nightly price you actually pay | Appears to be $189 | $260 |
The figures above are an example only, but the mechanism is exactly what catches travellers out. A room that looks like $189 is really $260 a night once a hidden resort fee and taxes are added, a difference of roughly a third. Across a four-night stay that is nearly $300 more than the advertised price implied, money that a single glance at the headline rate would never reveal.
5. What to do if you're charged an unexpected fee
Sometimes a fee appears that you were never told about, or one is applied for amenities the hotel did not actually provide. You are not without recourse. Work through it in order:
- Raise it at the front desk, calmly. Ask for the specific fee to be explained, and to be removed or reduced if it was not disclosed when you booked. Front-line staff can often waive a charge on the spot.
- Show your booking confirmation. If your confirmation stated a total that did not include the fee, that is your strongest evidence. Keep every screen and email that shows what you were told you would pay.
- Escalate to the booking channel. If you booked through a platform, contact its support and ask it to intervene with the property on your behalf over an undisclosed charge.
- Dispute the line item with your card issuer. As a last resort, dispute the specific undisclosed charge, not the whole stay, and attach the confirmation that shows the price you agreed to.
- Report a genuinely deceptive fee. Undisclosed mandatory fees can be reported to consumer authorities such as the FTC, which now regulates exactly this conduct in short-term lodging.
A useful mental line: a fee that was clearly disclosed before you paid is part of the deal you accepted, even if you dislike it. A fee that was hidden until after you committed is the thing the new rules exist to prevent, and the one worth challenging.
The honest price of a hotel is the total you pay, taxes and mandatory fees included, shown before you decide, not after. Anything else is a teaser, and a teaser is not a price.
— The VOYA team
Key takeaways
- A resort or destination fee is a mandatory daily charge added on top of the room rate; it applies to every guest whether or not they use the amenities it claims to cover.
- Common junk fees include resort and destination fees, early check-in, Wi-Fi, parking and "urban" amenity fees; some are avoidable, some are not.
- The FTC Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees, effective 12 May 2025, requires hotels to show the true total including mandatory fees up front. It does not ban the fees themselves.
- Always compare the all-in total, taxes and mandatory fees included, never the advertised nightly teaser.
- If you are charged an undisclosed fee, raise it at the desk, use your confirmation as evidence, and dispute the specific line item if needed.
Where hotel-fee transparency is heading
The direction of travel is clear, even if the pace is uneven. Regulation is pushing hard toward all-in pricing: the FTC rule set a national standard for short-term lodging in the United States, and pressure for honest totals is rising globally as travellers reward the platforms that show the real number and abandon the ones that hide it. At the same time, hotels will keep experimenting with what they call these charges, so "destination fee", "amenity fee" and "urban fee" will continue to multiply as labels even as the underlying practice comes under more scrutiny. The advantage is shifting toward booking tools that display the honest, all-in total by default and flag any property-collected fee before you commit, rather than after. For travellers, the winning habit does not change: insist on seeing the total, taxes and mandatory fees included, before you book, and treat any platform that will not show it as one to leave.
How VOYA does all-in pricing
VOYA is built around the idea that the price on the screen should be the price you pay. Every hotel rate in the club is shown all-in, with taxes included, and VOYA never adds a VOYA booking fee on top, so the number you see is close to the number that leaves your account. Where a specific hotel charges its own resort, destination or local fee that it collects on arrival, VOYA flags that up front rather than letting it ambush you at the desk. Rates are sourced through a travel-booking technology partner and checked against the live market, across roughly 2 million hotels and homes in 40-plus countries, and you earn VOYA Credit and points on every booking. For $9.90 a month or $99 a year, cancel anytime, membership gets you honest totals and member pricing on every stay. You can join the club in a couple of minutes and start comparing real, all-in prices inside the app on your very next trip.
Frequently asked questions
Are resort fees mandatory?
When a hotel charges a resort or destination fee, it is almost always mandatory: it applies to every guest for every night, whether or not you use the pool, gym or Wi-Fi it claims to cover. That is exactly why it draws criticism. Because it is unavoidable, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission treats it as part of the true price that must be disclosed up front rather than added at the end. A genuinely optional charge, such as paid parking you do not have to use, is different and is not treated the same way.
Can I refuse to pay a resort fee?
You generally cannot simply refuse a properly disclosed mandatory resort fee, because it is part of the contract you agreed to when you booked. What you can do is dispute a fee that was never disclosed, or one that covers amenities the hotel did not actually provide. Raise it politely at the front desk first, ask for the fee to be removed or reduced, and if that fails, dispute the specific line item with your card issuer and keep your booking confirmation as evidence of what you were told you would pay.
Do all hotels charge resort fees?
No. Resort fees are common at resorts, casino hotels and properties in high-demand city and beach destinations, but a large share of hotels, especially many independents, business hotels and budget brands, charge none at all. The only reliable way to know is to check the specific property for your dates. A booking screen that shows the full, all-in price before you pay makes it obvious whether a resort or destination fee applies to that hotel.
Does the FTC junk-fees rule mean resort fees are banned?
No. The FTC Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees, which took effect on 12 May 2025, does not ban resort fees or cap how much a hotel can charge. It requires that whenever a price is advertised or displayed, the total shown must already include mandatory fees such as resort fees, so you see the real number up front instead of discovering it at checkout. Government taxes and genuinely optional charges can be shown separately, but they still have to be disclosed clearly before you pay.
Does VOYA add its own booking fees on top of the hotel price?
No. VOYA never adds a VOYA booking fee. Member rates are shown all-in with taxes included, so the number you see is close to the number you pay. If a specific hotel charges its own resort or local fee that it collects on arrival, VOYA flags that up front so it is never a surprise at the desk. The goal is that the price on the screen is the honest total, not a teaser that grows at the final step.