Booking A Hotel? This Rule Change Means No More Hidden Fees (Here's What To Know)

We all know how the hotel booking process goes by now, right? You scan for prices, say, "Oh! $125? That's pretty reasonable," get all excited, and do some clicky clicks. Final price: $1,285. Ok, maybe that's an exaggeration, but you get the point. There are resort fees, additional person fees, parking fees, mini-bar fees, cleaning fees, and maybe even ridiculous fees for Wi-Fi. While lots of hotels might throw up their hands and claim innocence at such deceptive "junk fee" practices, they're obviously nonsense, and everyone knows it. Well, here comes the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to the rescue. As of May 12, 2025, they've decreed that hidden fees must be disclosed to the consumer up front.

In a nutshell, the FTC's Trade Regulation Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees doesn't prohibit short-term lodging businesses from laying on whatever fees they want, but it does prohibit them from not being transparent about it. Businesses can still operate as they wish, but they must not "offer, display, or advertise any price ... without clearly, conspicuously and prominently disclosing the total price" (per the Federal Register at the National Archives). In a practical sense, this means that costs are now clear up front when you go through the whole hotel booking process — from searching the internet and browsing listings to putting in your card info. And yes, this includes U.S. hotels operating abroad.

So if hotel junk fees are no longer hidden, what does it actually look like when you're booking a hotel now? While we can't describe every single hotel interface and check-out procedure, we can tell you what to expect in general. When you go to a U.S. hotel's website, you'll go through the booking process like usual. After choosing your nights and the number of people, some sites show the base charge for the room next to the total price for the booking. There also might be a toggle you can click to turn on/off the total charge visibility. Before, you would've only seen the base charge and then the total charge at checkout. 

This change also applies to U.S. businesses operating abroad. Big, international chains, like the Hilton, Marriott, and Holiday Inn, also have to abide by the FTC's ruling. This change applies to all short-term stay businesses, including side-of-the-street motels, old-school bed and breakfasts, Airbnbs, you name it. On Airbnb's website, you can even click the total rate to see every single junk cost: the room itself, cleaning fee, Airbnb fee, and taxes. Thanks to the FTC's new ruling, customers won't get hoodwinked by extra costs anymore. Even so, there are plenty of legitimate hotel scams out there, so take care.

The FTC's Trade Regulation Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees comes on the heels of a March 31, 2025, executive order signed by President Donald Trump, titled Combating Unfair Practices in the Live Entertainment Market. It was designed to thwart ticket resellers who double the actual price of things like concert tickets. The FTC's regulation also affects live events, as platforms like Ticketmaster must disclose any additional purchasing fees, as well. The rule extends the ethos of this executive order to short-term lodging, so whether you're trying to choose between a standard hotel or an Airbnb, it's covered by the FTC's rule.

And make no mistake: It really does look like the FTC is trying to cover all bases. The Trade Regulation Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees is a monstrous 102-page-long document with sections on how businesses should display their itemization and issue rebates, how the rule interacts with IRS regulations and state laws, and how it relates to the First Amendment — basically everything. Suffice it to say, if a fee is mandatory, it must be displayed. If a fee is assumed to be a part of a hotel stay, like a sneaky extra cost for towels, it must be displayed. If a fee is secretly automatic because there's some hidden checkbox or inaccessible opt-out option, then that's a no-no. So while this ruling doesn't eliminate things like sneaky resort fees (which you can actually avoid), you'll at least know what you're paying for.