Resort Fees After the FTC Junk Fees Rule: What Resorts Should Do Next

• The FTC junk fees rule took effect on 12 May 2025. It requires hotels to show the total price, including mandatory fees, upfront. It does not ban resort fees.
• A federal bill, the Hotel Fees Transparency Act, has passed the Senate Commerce Committee and awaits a full Senate vote. California and Minnesota already passed their own rules in 2024.
• In Europe, the Digital Fairness Act proposal is expected in mid-November 2026. Drip pricing is one of the practices the Commission consulted on.
• NerdWallet's 2026 analysis found an average resort fee of USD 33 per day at hotels that charge one. At a 250-room resort, a USD 35 fee is worth more than USD 2.2 million a year.
• Once the fee sits inside the headline price, it competes like room rate. Many resorts will earn more by turning parts of the bundle into optional purchases that guests choose during the stay.

The FTC announced its final Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees on 17 December 2024, and it took effect on 12 May 2025. It covers two industries: live-event ticketing and short-term lodging, which includes hotels, resorts and vacation rentals.

The core requirement is simple. Whenever a business offers, displays or advertises a price for lodging, it must clearly and conspicuously show the total price, including all mandatory fees. A resort fee, destination fee or amenity fee that every guest must pay is part of that total.

What the rule does not do is just as important. As law firm Morgan Lewis put it, it is a disclosure rule, not a rule on what prices may be charged. Resorts can still charge resort fees. They just cannot hide them until checkout. The rule also does not stop state attorneys general from enforcing stricter state laws.

United States. Congress is working on a federal standard. The Senate Commerce Committee has approved the Hotel Fees Transparency Act, and the House has passed a similar bill, the No Hidden FEES Act. Both would set one national standard for showing mandatory fees across hotels, short-term rentals and booking sites. At the time of writing, the Senate bill still awaits a full vote. California and Minnesota already adopted their own fee transparency laws in 2024.

United Kingdom. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act introduced rules on drip pricing, requiring the total price, including unavoidable fees, in invitations to purchase.

European Union. The European Commission is expected to present its Digital Fairness Act in mid-November 2026, according to a European Parliament research briefing. In its consultation, the Commission asked about drip pricing, the practice of adding mandatory fees later in the booking process, including the option of an outright ban. Drip pricing is already a focus of enforcement under existing EU consumer law.

The direction across all three markets is the same: the price the guest sees first should be the price they pay.

Resort fees are not universal, but where they exist they are significant:

Fees are still a growing revenue line for some owners. DiamondRock Hospitality reported that spa, parking and destination fees each grew by mid to high single digits at its resorts in Q4 2025.

There has also been a quieter reason for resort fees: commission. As NerdWallet notes, many resorts pay travel agents a commission based on the nightly rate, so a lower rate plus a separate fee reduces the commission paid. Any change to the fee should account for that.

Before the rule, a resort fee did two jobs. It made the headline rate look lower, and it collected extra revenue that many guests did not notice until checkout. The FTC rule removes the first job in the US, and European rules are moving the same way.

That leaves an uncomfortable fact. When the fee is inside the total price, a guest comparing two resorts sees one number. A USD 35 fee is now simply USD 35 of rate. It no longer makes your resort look cheaper.

And it still carries its old reputation. A resort fee is a bundle the guest did not choose: Wi-Fi, pool towels, a fitness room, a daily bottle of water, a bike they may never ride. Guests who pay for things they do not use tend to mention it in reviews.

The question for every resort charging a fee is therefore commercial, not legal: is a mandatory bundle still the best way to earn this money?

There is no single right answer. Resorts with high usage of every item in the bundle may be fine with option 1 or 2. But many resort fees include items that only a minority of guests use. Those items are often worth more as optional purchases, sold at the moment the guest wants them, than as an average charge spread across everyone.

Option 3 only works if the resort can sell during the stay. That means guests can see what is available, when it is useful, and book or order in a few taps. The same in-stay selling that grows F&B capture and fills summer days at mountain resorts is what makes unbundling pay.

Take an illustrative 250-room resort at 70% occupancy with a resort fee of USD 35 per room night.

• Occupied room nights per year: 250 × 70% × 365 = 63,875
• Annual resort fee revenue: 63,875 × USD 35 = USD 2,235,625

That number explains why few resorts drop a fee without a plan. Before you change anything, find out what the USD 35 actually buys:

Fill in your own usage numbers. Items most guests use belong in the rate. Items only some guests use are candidates to sell separately, at a price that reflects their value to the guests who want them.

Take this checklist into your next commercial meeting:

• We show the total price, including all mandatory fees, on every channel we control, from the first price the guest sees.
• We have checked how our distribution partners display our fee.
• We have a list of every item included in the fee.
• We know what share of guests actually uses each item.
• We have read our reviews for mentions of the resort fee in the last 12 months.
• We know how our commission costs change if the fee moves into the rate.
• We know which items we could sell separately during the stay.
• We have a way to reach in-house guests with those offers during the stay, not only before arrival.
• Someone is tracking the EU Digital Fairness Act and the US federal bill, and will tell us if anything changes.

Resort fees are not banned in the US, and they are not banned in Europe. But the rules are converging on one principle: the total price must be clear from the start. Once that is true, a resort fee stops being a pricing trick and becomes plain price.

That is an opportunity as much as a constraint. Resorts that keep only what every guest uses in the rate, and sell the rest as optional, well-timed extras during the stay, can earn the same money with fewer complaints, and often more of it.

Start with one list. Write down everything your resort fee includes and how many guests used each item last month. The answer will tell you which option fits.

Qreadible is the revenue engine for spa and mountain resorts. It puts optional extras, from e-bikes to bar credit to spa sessions, in front of in-house guests through a QR code in every room, lets them book from their own phone, and reports every month on what sold. If you are rethinking your resort fee, book a demo to see what selling those items during the stay would earn at your resort. For the bigger picture on where the next dollar comes from, read Record ADR, Flat Profit.