Hotel Resort Fee Lawsuit: What Travelers Need to Know

You find a room for $129 a night, click through to pay, and suddenly the total is $175 — $46 more than you agreed to. That extra charge, billed as a “resort fee” for Wi-Fi, the pool, and a fitness center you never planned to use, is one of the most hated line items in travel. It is also the subject of a hotel resort fee lawsuit wave that has moved through state attorneys general, federal regulators, and private class actions over the past several years.

The fight is not really about $30 here or there. It is about whether a hotel can advertise one price, then quietly add a mandatory surcharge before you finish checking out. For travelers, the outcome of these cases changes what a hotel can charge you without saying so up front — and what you can do when one appears on your bill.

What Is a Resort Fee, and Why Is It Controversial?

A resort fee is a mandatory daily charge that hotels add on top of the advertised room rate. The hotel frames it as a convenience bundle, but you cannot decline it, and it is usually hidden until the final step of booking or until you arrive at the front desk.

How it typically works:

• The advertised rate excludes it. The nightly price shown in search results and on the booking page does not include the fee.
• It is mandatory. You cannot opt out, even if you never use the pool, gym, Wi-Fi, or “local calls” the fee supposedly covers.
• It is per night, per room. A $30 fee on a five-night stay adds $150 plus tax.
• It gets rebranded. Hotels call it a resort fee, destination fee, facility fee, amenity fee, urban fee, or “daily mandatory charge,” which makes comparison-shopping harder.

In resort-heavy markets, the numbers are real money. In Las Vegas, daily resort fees on the Strip commonly run $35 to $50 per night and can top $60 at some properties. In Hawaii and popular Florida beach markets, $25 to $45 per night is common. On a week-long trip, a “cheap” $99 room can end up costing more than a $124 room at a hotel that includes everything in the rate — the exact kind of comparison the fee is designed to blur.

The core problem is what lawyers call drip pricing: showing a low headline price, then adding required charges later in the checkout flow. Critics argue it short-circuits comparison shopping and pads revenue without appearing in the advertised rate.

The Hotel Resort Fee Lawsuit: From State AGs to Class Actions

The hotel resort fee lawsuit story began in earnest in 2019, when Washington, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine sued Marriott International, the world’s largest hotel chain. The lawsuit accused Marriott of deceptive “drip pricing” for advertising room rates that excluded mandatory resort fees across many of its properties.

That case set the tone. State regulators argued that a mandatory fee labeled “optional-sounding” and disclosed only at the end of booking was a deceptive trade practice, not a minor disclosure issue.

Pennsylvania followed with its own action against Marriott, and the two sides reached a settlement. Marriott agreed to disclose the total price of a stay up front — including resort and destination fees — in its search results, on its website, and in its app, and it paid a penalty. It did not admit wrongdoing, but the settlement forced the kind of up-front pricing consumers had been asking for.

Private litigants joined in too. Consumer class actions targeted major chains, arguing that mandatory fees advertised in fine print amounted to false advertising under state consumer-protection laws. The legal theory in most of these cases is the same: a charge described as covering amenities is illegal if those amenities are closed, declined, or never available, and a price that hides that charge is misleading no matter how the hotel labels it.

The practical takeaway: hotels have been under sustained legal pressure to show the real price earlier, and regulators have largely taken the traveler’s side on the principle that the advertised price should be the price you pay.

The FTC’s Junk Fees Rule and the Hotel Industry Response

The biggest shift came from Washington. In October 2023, the Federal Trade Commission proposed a rule targeting “junk fees” — hidden and surprise charges across travel, ticketing, and other industries. Hotel resort fees were squarely in its sights, cited as a prime example of a mandatory charge consumers cannot avoid and cannot see up front.

In December 2024, the FTC announced its final “Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees.” The rule requires businesses to disclose the total price of goods and services up front, including mandatory fees, rather than burying them until checkout. While it is not limited to hotels, the resort fee was one of the most visible targets of the rulemaking.

The hotel industry pushed back hard. The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) has argued for years that it prefers a federal transparency law over a sprawling regulation, and trade groups supported narrower bills like the Hotel Fees Transparency Act and the No Hidden FEES Act in Congress. Their position is that hotels should disclose fees clearly, but that a one-size-fits-all federal rule could create compliance confusion.

Where the rule lands in practice has remained a moving target as of this writing, with legal challenges and shifts in federal enforcement priorities leaving hotel pricing rules in flux. Whatever happens at the federal level, the direction of travel is clear: more disclosure, earlier in the booking process, and less tolerance for surprise charges. You can track the official text and any enforcement updates on the FTC’s website, and consumer guides at sites like the ones run by NerdWallet and The Points Guy keep running lists of how specific chains are pricing fees.

How to Spot Hidden Resort Fees When You Book

You do not need to wait for a court ruling to protect yourself. Resort fees leave a trail, and a few habits will catch most of them before you hand over a credit card.

• Check the final price, not the headline. Scroll to the last screen before clicking “book” and compare the total against the nightly rate you saw on the search page.
• Look for fine-print phrases. “Includes $X per night in additional charges,” “daily resort fee,” or “taxes and fees” that seem higher than local tax alone are red flags.
• Read the rate details. Most booking sites list resort fees on the room or rate selection page, usually in smaller text under the amenities.
• Search the hotel by name plus “resort fee.” Sites comparing booking direct versus third-party sites often surface exactly what an individual property charges.
• Know the hotspot cities. Las Vegas, Hawaii, Miami Beach, Orlando, and many big-city convention hotels are the most likely to add the fee.

If you book through a third party, note that some online travel agents display fees differently than the hotel’s own site. The total is what matters, regardless of who shows it to you first.

How to Avoid or Fight a Resort Fee

A resort fee is hard to dodge entirely at a property that charges one, but it is not always a lost cause. Here is what actually works.

• Book at hotels that do not charge them. Independent properties, many budget chains, and loyalty-program hotels in non-resort areas often skip the fee altogether. A quick check before booking is cheaper than a surprise at checkout.
• Use points and status. Some loyalty programs waive resort fees on award stays or for elite members, and a hotel status match program can get you those waivers without earning status from scratch. This is one of the few consistent ways to zero out the fee.
• Check whether the fee is disclosed at booking. If a hotel did not show the fee before you paid, you have a stronger case to dispute it. Screenshot the booking screen and your confirmation.
• Ask at the front desk. If amenities the fee covers are closed or you never used them, politely asking the front desk to remove the fee sometimes works, especially at independent hotels.
• Dispute it with your credit card. If the fee was genuinely hidden and the hotel will not budge, a chargeback is a last-resort option, but be aware it can strain your relationship with the hotel and should be reserved for fees never disclosed at all.
• Use a hotel resort credit strategically. Some bookings and elite perks include a daily food-and-beverage or resort credit that largely offsets the fee, which is the closest thing to getting it refunded.

Even where the law is still catching up, disclosure is your friend. The more travelers who ask, complain, and dispute, the more hotels treat the fee as a cost of doing business rather than easy margin.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are resort fees legal?

Yes, resort fees remain legal in most of the U.S., provided the hotel discloses them. The legal battles are over how and when they are disclosed. A mandatory fee disclosed clearly up front is generally permitted; one hidden until checkout is far more likely to run afoul of consumer-protection law.

Are resort fees refundable?

Rarely. Because they are framed as mandatory daily charges rather than optional services, hotels almost never refund them after the fact. Your best shot at a refund is showing the fee was never disclosed before you booked, or finding that the amenities it covered were closed.

Do I have to pay a resort fee if I do not use the amenities?

Yes, at hotels that charge one. The fee is mandatory and not tied to actual usage, which is a big reason consumers and regulators consider it unfair. The only exceptions are loyalty-program award stays or elite status perks that waive the fee.

What is the difference between a resort fee and a destination fee?

Almost nothing. “Destination fee” is simply a newer label many urban hotels adopted as “resort fee” attracted negative attention and legal scrutiny. Both are mandatory per-night charges added on top of the room rate.

Will the FTC junk fees rule eliminate resort fees?

Not necessarily. The rule targets hidden disclosure, not the fee itself. Hotels would still be able to charge resort fees; they would have to show the total price, including the fee, before you commit. Some hotels may drop the fee rather than advertise it up front.

The Bottom Line

The hotel resort fee lawsuit has already changed how big chains disclose their prices, and the FTC’s junk fees rule points toward even more transparency. But the fee itself is not going away, and in resort cities it can still add $150 or more to a week’s stay.

The difference between paying it and avoiding it usually comes down to a few minutes of checking the total before you book — and knowing which booking methods, loyalty perks, and hotels let you skip it. Compare totals, not headline rates, and treat any fee you did not agree to as a conversation worth having. A traveler who reads the final price before clicking “book” is the one the fee rarely surprises.

Want to keep more of your hotel budget? Check out our guides on booking a hotel direct vs. a third-party site and making the most of a last-minute hotel booking app to lock in the true cost of your stay.