Hidden Hotel Resort Fees & Other Bogus Junk Fees Might Finally End.
Resort fees are a scourge at hotels in Orlando and Anaheim near Walt Disney World and Disneyland. These surcharges range from $5/night to over $40, and are hidden so consumers don’t see them when comparison shopping. This post covers why they’re anti-competitive, how “junk fees” might be addressed, and more. (Updated October 13, 2023.)
There are currently over 100 hotels in Orlando and approximately 50 in Orange County, California that charge resort fees. To their credit, Walt Disney World and Disneyland do not charge resort fees. And they probably won’t anytime soon. While there were fears they’d follow the trend a few years ago, Walt Disney World eliminated parking fees for hotel guests in 2023.
The purpose of this post is to educate consumers about resort fees and other nickel & diming practices of the travel industry, and other advice on offering said pushback. Fortunately, there are ways to “fight back” against resort fees, and that’s what we’ll help you do here. The other good news is that consumers have more leverage than ever to do battle against these anti-consumer practices, and that there’s a new FTC proposed rule to combat “junk fees” in the hospitality and other industries…
October 13, 2023 Update: Let’s start with the latest development, which is that the Federal Trade Commission announced a new proposed rule this week to prohibit junk fees, which are hidden and bogus fees that can harm consumers and undercut honest businesses that show actual prices upfront. The FTC has estimated that these fees can cost consumers tens of billions of dollars per year in unexpected costs.
“These junk fees now cost Americans tens of billions of dollars per year—money that corporations are extracting from working families just because they can,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “By hiding the total price, these junk fees make it harder for consumers to shop for the best product or service and punish businesses who are honest upfront. The FTC’s proposed rule to ban junk fees will save people money and time, and make our markets more fair and competitive.”
During the initial public comments period about the proposed FTC rule, a chorus of over 10,000 comments made clear that consumers are fed up with hidden fees for everything from booking hotels and resort fees to buying concert tickets online. Many consumers said that sellers often do not advertise the total amount they will have to pay, and disclose fees only after they are well into completing the transaction. Businesses often misrepresent or do not adequately disclose the nature or purpose of certain fees, leaving consumers wondering what they are paying for or if they are getting anything at all for the fee charged.
The proposed rule will save consumers more than 50 million hours per year of wasted time spent searching for the total price in live-ticketing and accommodations alone, according to FTC estimates. This time savings is equivalent to more than $10 billion over the next decade.
The proposed rule would require businesses to include all mandatory fees upfront in pricing, making it easier for consumers to comparison shop for the lowest price. The proposed rule would also have enforcement teeth, allowing the FTC to secure refunds for harmed consumers and seek monetary penalties against companies that do not comply with its provisions.
To accomplish this, the proposed rule would ban the following junk fee practices that consistently confuse and trick consumers:
- Hidden Fees – Businesses routinely engage in bait-and-switch pricing tactics that hide mandatory fees and deceive consumers about the price. This is because fees revealed later in the booking process, but before the purchase is made, significantly increase the total that consumers pay. Accordingly, the proposed rule would prohibit businesses from advertising prices that hide or leave out mandatory fees; and
- Bogus Fees – The rule would prohibit sellers from misrepresenting fees and require them to disclose upfront the amount and purpose of the fees, whether they are refundable and under what circumstances.
These provisions are aimed at ensuring businesses will no longer be able to lure consumers with artificially low prices that they later inflate with mandatory fees or to deceive consumers about the nature and purpose of fees.
The proposed FTC rule would provide a level playing field for honest businesses by requiring total prices to be quoted at the start of the purchasing process, and to remove false or misleading information about fees from the marketplace.
This all has gained momentum over the last several years thanks to FTC statements, consumer advocacy and, most recently, a series of high-profile airline debacles this winter. The proposed policy would curtail companies charging resort fees at hotels, service fees at concerts and sporting events, seat charges on airlines, and other excess added costs.
As a result, President Biden mentioned this proposal during his State of the Union Address earlier this year. “We’re making airlines show you the full ticket price upfront and refund your money if your flight is canceled or delayed,” Biden continued. “Baggage fees are bad enough…they can’t just treat your child like a piece of luggage. Americans are tired of being played for suckers. Pass the Junk Fees Prevention Act so companies stop ripping us off.”
“We’ll ban surprise ‘resort fees’ that hotels tack on to your bill. These fees can cost you up to $90 a night…at hotels that aren’t even resorts,” Biden said to bipartisan chuckles and applause–a rare moment of that during the address.
The bipartisan support to this is probably key to the FTC rule’s potential success. While the State of the Union has its share of theatrics and partisanship, members of Congress on both sides of the aisle approved of this message. And for good reason–these fees are wildly unpopular with Americans and the aforementioned airline incidents as well as woes with TicketMaster have shined a spotlight on this anticompetitive behavior.
This practice is anti-consumer because certain sellers publish a low price and then add mandatory fees later, at the back-end of the buying process. As the research shows, by concealing the full price, this practice can lead consumers to pay more than they would otherwise, and it also makes it hard for consumers to comparison shop.
As we discuss below, booking hotels on travel aggregator sites are a perfect example of this. With the proposed FTC rule seemingly having support on both sides of the aisle and with a broad swath of the American public, perhaps 2023 will finally be the year that resort fees become a thing of the past!
For our part, we’ve been “fighting back” against resort fees for about a decade. We occasionally have the chance to meet with hotel managers and operators to discuss their properties. If they charge a resort fee, I always ask why. The explanations typically range from ‘to show consumers we offer more amenities’ or ‘so our pricing is fair as compared to other hotels that don’t have these services.’ I’m not satisfied with these B.S. answers, so I push further. The underlying rationale seems to be because everyone else is doing it.
That attitude is why I believe this post–a departure from the typical tone and substance of our content here–is appropriate and significant. Tourists heading to Walt Disney World and Disneyland are being fleeced by third party hoteliers, including several that are on-site in the Disney Springs, Bonnet Creek, and Crescent Lake Resort Areas. More importantly, there’s something we can do about it.
Those in the hotel industry like to explain away resort fees by comparing them to baggage and other fees charged by the airline industry. While most consumers also don’t like the nickel and diming that has become standard M.O. among the airlines, that’s immaterial, because resort fees are different.
We’re far from fans of baggage fees that the airlines charge, but they are nonetheless not the same as resort fees. The critical distinction is that to avoid baggage fees, you can travel light. Along these lines, parking fees also aren’t quite the same, as you can also avoid that fee by not driving. (Both easier said than done, but that’s slightly beside the point.) There is literally no way to avoid resort fees. Everyone must pay them.
There’s no way to opt-out if you sign a pledge to not use the pool, read a newspaper, or make a cup of coffee. Since the fee is non-optional, literally every guest is paying it, just as every guest is paying the base rate. So there’s no logical argument that can be made to separate the two.
Resort fees aren’t being charged because hotels have elected to go above and beyond in offering a particularly robust slate of resort amenities like a complimentary Porsche to use while at the hotel or an in-room Smurf providing personalized concierge recommendations. (One of those is an actual amenity at a real hotel…sadly, it’s not the latter.) To the contrary, resort fees often have little to do with the amenities offered, and such fees are charged just as often at motels as they are actual resorts. (This motel even charges one. Yeah.)
The real reason hotels charge resort fees is because they make it more difficult for potential guests to ascertain the actual nightly rate. This is particularly true in the era of online booking engines like Expedia and its ilk. Booking engines typically do not show resort fees on the search results page, and only thereafter display them as an asterisk item that there is a fee that isn’t collected by the booking site.
Many travelers never see this fine print, and only learn of the added fee when they arrive at the hotel, by which time it’s typically too late to do anything about it besides grumble a bit, and pay it. Other travelers who see the fees before arrival do so after they’ve already clicked through to start the booking process, making them statistically more like to “convert.” This increased conversion rate metric in turn helps the hotel justify charging a resort fee. In short, hiding the fees is an effective way for hotels to increase bookings.
Per the FTC, fewer than 6% of all hotels in the United States charge resort fees (the percentage is exponentially higher in Florida), fees and surcharges are an incredibly lucrative revenue stream for hotels. According to Consumer Reports, the hotel industry collects roughly $3 billion in resort fee revenue per year. This is a pretty substantial number, and even shocking when considering that the amount has nearly tripled from $1.2 billion in 2004.
Resort fees are effective because they enable hotels to keep their advertised prices low to lure travel planners into the booking process with these cheaper base rates. Only later in the process do guests learn that what they will ultimately pay per night is significantly higher than the advertised rate thanks to the hidden fees.
This practice isn’t just irritating for bargain-hunting tourists. The FTC has called it a “deceptive and unfair trade practice,” and is finally starting to get serious about regulating resort fees. This doesn’t actually mean anything will happen. The FTC is a fairly toothless agency that is big on talk and light on action. The FTC sent a Warning Letter to 22 hoteliers, rebuffing them for the way their resort fees displayed. Nothing changed.
More recently, the District of Columbia attorney general filed a lawsuit against Marriott, accusing the hotel giant of deceptive fee practices. The suit accuses Marriott of employing “an unlawful trade practice called ‘drip pricing’ in advertising its hotel rooms, whereby Marriott initially hides a portion of a hotel room’s daily rate from consumers.” This is commonly labeled as a resort fee. Per the suit, Marriott has “reaped hundreds of millions of dollars over the past decade from this deceptive drip pricing.”
This lawsuit has garnered serious public attention, and was borne out of an ongoing investigation conducted by the attorneys general of all 50 states and the District of Columbia into the industry-wide practice of charging mandatory resort fees. While the lawsuit does not seek to outlaw resort fees, it challenges how they’re displayed. Moreover, the public outcry following this suit means a legislative solution is likely–and that’s where the practice of charging non-optional resort fees could be deemed illegal and, ultimately, killed.
We live in an age of slactivism, where hashtag warriors fight the big issues of our day with angry tweets and modified profile pictures. However, this is one situation where the internet can actually empower people to impact change.
Every time I encounter a resort fee in a hotel I review, I belabor the point that these are consumer-unfriendly and hotel chains have been warned about them in the past by the FTC. This is to the point where it’s probably become tiresome for regular readers, but it’s my way of “fighting back” in a small way. Now, I’d encourage you to fight back in a way that actually could lead to positive change. Here’s how…
In terms of marketing, nothing matters more to hotels than their TripAdvisor ranking. Being in the top 10 or on the first page on TripAdvisor for a specific city is huge, and each higher numerical rung is statistically significant in terms of consumer interest, occupancy rate, and competitive equilibrium pricing. There are even TripAdvisor “Reputation Management” Specialists (and software) who consult hotel brands on how to shape their reputation on TripAdvisor.
The simple way to fight back is to review hotels on TripAdvisor, deduct a star (or however much you feel appropriate) for a hotel at which you stayed charging a resort fee, and indicate as much in your review. I would caution against leaving a 1-star review to “balance the scales,” but I don’t think it’s unfair to rate a hotel that was otherwise 4-stars in your mind as 3-stars on TripAdvisor due to the resort fee. For me, it’s certainly star-worthy.
This will not only impact the overall score of the hotel, giving its managers pause about the negative side of their bonus revenue stream, but will bring resort fees to the attention of other potential guests. Someone reading TripAdvisor who may not have been aware of a resort fee will have reason to delve a little deeper, instead of being surprised by a significant additional charge upon check-in.
All it takes is 3 negative reviews for the average TripAdvisor user to rule out using a particular hotel, so it is possible for anyone to fight back against resort fees. Your voices can matter–use them to send the message to hoteliers.
There’s even more you can do. We regularly receive surveys from hoteliers with whom we book and do not book reservations, often in an attempt to lure back customers. When responding, we always bring up resort fees and other practices we view as nickel & diming.
We would strongly encourage you to do the same, using this as an opportunity to voice your displeasure about how the travel industry has attempted to fleece guests in the name of wringing out additional profits. In large part, this has worked for the last decade, as business has been booming and demand was at all-time highs. With an economic downturn or potential recession on the horizon, it’s going to be a very different environment–one where consumers have much more strength. Hotels, airlines, and theme parks will need to do more to compete for the business of guests. We’d strongly encourage you to use your voice to shape their policies going forward. Enough is enough.
If you’re planning on visiting Disneyland or Walt Disney World, we have a comprehensive Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide as well as a thorough Walt Disney World Planning Guide. For Disney updates, discount information, a free download of our Money-Saving Tips for Walt Disney World eBook, and much more, sign up for our free monthly newsletter!
Your Thoughts
What do you think of resort fees? Optimistic that 2023 will be the year that the FTC enacts a rule to finally end this anti-competitive practice? Do these tacked-on charges bother you as a consumer, or is this much ado about nothing? Have you stayed in a hotel that charges a resort fee? What did you think of it? Any other thoughts or questions? We love hearing from readers, so please share any other thoughts or questions you have in the comments below!
I think “RESORT fees” are reprehensible, especially when I trade my timeshare for a week. I’ve already paid tons of maintenance and trade fees and then they want to add more?? I would like to start a class action for timeshare owners.
The worst offenders are the Swan and Dolphin, for charging an extra fee, per night, for CHILDREN staying in the room using existing beds. I used to make a reservation just for two adults to get around this, but now having to have a park reservation for each person nullifies this approach. When you add the fees for 2 kids it’s almost as much as staying at a Disney owned resort.
The prices Disney charges are astronomical and to put a resort and parking charge on people is absolutely obscene. Then to not tell everyone the real price they will incur is diabolical injustice. I believe that people will see that after this outbreak of Covid-19 they will not have any of their savings left and their will be and astronomic down turn and Disney will be flat out of luck and loose so much money that they will have to lower their prices so people will come to the park. They have been gauging for the past ten years at-least and will feel the public’s revenge and have to gain the trust of the people again before they will come to the park. Also people will be scared to congregate in large groups for some time to come. Also if they haven’t treated the customers well during this shutdown and returned the customers money, people will search out a class action suits against any companies that haven’t refunded money during the Covid-19 outbreak. You can be sure that this will happen and Disney and affiliations will be taken for any and all money the people can get. I myself will never stay at Disney again because it is a ripoff. The food at Disney is no different than any other good restaurant so why spend the hilarious amount at Disney. The parks are fun and to take my grandchildren will happen but all the extras will be avoided.
As mentioned in the article Disney isn’t charging a resort fee (hiding that cost)
I agree the parking fee stinks but if you have a car and drive to the parks you don’t have to pay those parking fees which folks staying off site have to pay.
I agree totally. All of my family went to universal studios in Florida this year. First time we haven’t stayed on Disney property for about 40 years. We were big time Disney fans. Went at least 1 time each year. I’m disappointed with the greediness of Disney. I’m not saying I’ll NEVER go back. May stay elsewhere also since you have to pay for parking and they took away the magical express.
As a Travel Agent it’s very disturbing to know that these search engines don’t tell people. If people would just use a Travel Agent we could find the best deals for their needs and for warn them of fees involved. Most people don’t understand that they don’t pay a Travel Agent for their expertise! The hotels, cruise lines, etc. pay us. It sucks because there aren’t many of us still around. We have extensive education and have traveled near and far to experience many places in the world so we can steer a client in the right direction on the resort fee note – it’s horrible! I stay at a Holiday Inn in Orlando and I identify myself as a Travel Agent and I they still slam me with a resort fee when all I do is sleep there. I so wish we could do something about it but we need everyone to do it!
I have truly appreciated the help I’ve received from the travel agents I work with for my vacations, between their knowledge of discounts that I might not have found on my own, tips on making the trip more enjoyable, and keeping the whole planning process smooth and stress-free. I had guidance through our first disney trip with my family, and I’ve always work with a TA when we have planned a cruise. Our TA usually has the scoop on any ship we’re considering on rooms that don’t have major noise disturbances, will be convenient, where we can book a small block of rooms if traveling with a group, etc. If anything did go wrong, I know my travel agent will go to bat for us. It really is a shame that more people haven’t realized the value of your services that don’t cost us anything as the traveler.
Thank you for this article, I have found that even the timeshares are doing it! At the Worldmark Anaheim, for example, the fees are ridiculous! We already pay maintenance fees, housekeeping fees and now resort fees! This is not in. I think we also need to start sending letters to these Companies, Senators and the Federal Trade Commission, if there are enough of us, maybe we can make effective change.
Having been a traveler all of my adult life and a frequent visitor to Disney World (always staying at on-site resorts) Iam no stranger to resort fees; particularly parking fees. In some large and crowded cities; parking fees may be understandable all be it annoying. These resorts often have to contract for guest parking and are passing along the cost. However when it comes to Disney World resorts, there is ample parking space at each property owned and supplied for the sole purpose of guest parking. So the additional parking fee now being charged is not only excessive at upwards of $20 per day; it is just greedy and infuriating when added to an already over priced vacation. I will definately be including this sentiment in my next Trip Advisor review along with a deduction of 1-2 stars depending on the dollar amount of the fee.
We stayed at Disney resort in January. Because of the parking fees, we did not rent a car. We did Magic Express and took Uber to church and Gatorland. Worked out great and was much cheaper than parking fee and rental car.
I live in las vegas hotels resort fees can be more than the price of the hotel room per night. I can not justify paying more in resort fees than the room itself. So i will not book Ridiculous!!!
The more I reflect on this, the more I think this isn’t a hotel issue – any hotel that opts out of resort fees is putting itself at a huge disadvantage. Hotel comparison sites should instead include all non mandatory fees in the headline price.
What about the hotel’s websites? Those aren’t Travelocity’s problem? What if a customer calls? Unless it’s only search engines that are disclosing prices, it’s the hotel’s responsibility. Plus it’s just plain deceptive and we shouldn’t stand for it. When a company gets away with stuff like this, they know they can manipulate customers in other ways.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m fully in favour of requiring all mandatory charges to be displayed in the headline price, like the EU did long ago. I’m just opining on how this could be solved without legislation, which doesn’t appear to be forthcoming. Having the option of including all mandatory fees and taxes in the displayed price must be a competitive advantage for the first hotel site to do so. (Hotels.com’s UK site already does, even for hotels in the US).
Great article! I used to go hang out in Las Vegas once or twice a year. About ten years ago I encountered my first resort fee, hidden of course and not disclosed until check-in. Never again! My next visit to Vegas I stayed in Motel 6. At least the price was as advertised. I haven’t been to Las Vegas in 8 years, and until resort fees disappear don’t plan on going back.
Keep fighting and complaining about additional charges like baggage fees, seat selection, resort fees, parking, etc. and you will only see the supplier change their tune and start including it with the cost. It will only take one big name supplier to “remove” fees and increase their fares before everyone else jumps on board.
No one is above paying these fees and the CONSUMER is the one to blame. Consumers want the cheapest thing and the suppliers found a way to offer that by having a low base rate with add ons. If consumers think they shouldn’t have to pay the additional fees then you are daft to think they will take them away and not add it to the base rate.
The travel industry is in pieces right now and people that want cheap and think the industry should be offering cheap because of the current situation are the problem. Travel used to be for the rich and business travellers. If everyone keeps up their petty complaining than the travel industry will be lost to leisure travellers until the industry can back on it’s feet.
When I plan a trip I am not looking for the least expensive price, I am looking for the best value. If it is worth the cost to me than I buy it but if it is not worth the cost to me, I move on and look for something different. People need to stop thinking they are owed something for nothing.
I guess the only way you can find the best value is knowing how much you’re paying. Then you can decide. If the industry hides the real price of a hotel room, there’s no way you can make an informed decision.
This! Also, resort fees aren’t paying for a separate service. They’re just a part of the base price that’s just being hidden during the initial search and booking process. The airline industry used to do the same thing, remember? You’d search for a flight and have to guesstimate how much you’d be paying in fees on top of what was listed until the end of the booking process when they’d actually tell you the full price. That’s no longer a thing because it’s no longer legal. Same thing should happen to resort fees.
Sorry but I think you sound like the people that think seniors on social security are greedy people that get handouts from the government while it is OUR money that we paid into. As for resort fees I don’t like paying super high prices but I would rather have the cost up front and know what I am paying for. To me resort fees are a way to scam the customers and I am SOOOO very tired of people or businesses trying to scam me.
Something for NOTHING?? Do you own a timeshare?
We have stayed at Disney hotels frequently over the years.
One year we decided to try the Dolphin, since it was one of the few we hadn’t tried at least once.
We had a great time, but I couldn’t believe the number of resort fees that we tacked onto everything! We paid as much in resort fees as we did for the room!
Needless to say, we’ve never been back.
Yep, that’s why I’m not doing the Dolphin again. Between extra fees and having to pay for a shuttle because Magical Express isn’t included, the great deal we got on a room there stopped feeling like such a great deal pretty quick.
I can’t imagine how the class action lawyers haven’t gotten a hold of this one…or have they?
Thanks for addressing this Tom. It seems like everything has extra fees added anymore, just to either hide the true price or use the fees to collect some additional money without paying taxes. It would be nice to just know the full price upfront. The Tripadvisor review suggestion is a good one, I’ll have to remember it
I feel the same way with some ticket fees. Every time I buy a ticket to a sporting event or concert, there is the advertised price, and then when you go to checkout, there is the ticket fee, plus processing fee, and next thing you know you are paying $20 or more per ticket. But they lure you in with the lower price of the ticket, and then many times you don’t notice the fee at checkout since you are buying four tickets and don’t always check how the total is much more than you thought. So far the theme parks haven’t started doing this, they just add tax, but if it ever starts I would be highly disappointed.
I 100% agree and was about to make the same comment! It is extremely frustrating to pay as much in fees as I am for a ticket to an event and more often than not I actually just walk away.
The first time I stayed at Wyndham Anaheim I did not know about the resort fee until I checked in. It is a timeshare so I’m already paying a maintenance fee every year. Yes I think this is awful & unfair.
Thanks for addressing this. I love Disney, but I am sick of being nickled & dimed to death. When booking a vacation it is so important to know upfront what all the cost are. Things like the parking fee can be a big blow, especially if you are not expecting it. I was extremely disappointed when I found out that Disney would be adding a parking fee when staying at the resort and actually sent them a message after the news broke to express my disappointment about this. It really did leave a bad taste in my mouth and really makes me reconsider if I even want to go to Disney much less stay at their resorts.
Thank you for sharing this information because even when we book a resort or hotel they don’t mention the incidentals that you have to pay even though you get that deposit back it should be mentioned when booking I appreciate you Tom for looking out for the people.
More of a “mark-down” than a mark-up, BUT:
When they reopen, Disney should consider going back to single use shampoo, etc.
I’m not sure I ever want to touch those things in the bathrooms again. There’s no way they’ll be sanitized enough.
That’s the first thing I would change. I know Disney did it to save money but even in the best of times, they seemed a bit concerning to me. Now I wouldn’t touch one.
Maybe Disney is banking on more people bringing their own ? Less expense for Disney.
This is also a much more environmentally friendly change. If you’re using them in the bathroom, you’re about to wash your hands anyway. Now in the public bathrooms, I agree there should be some
kind of touch less system.
I won’t be surprised if these kind practices will make it’s way into other parts of the industry. I know one UK airport that charges (or charged, not sure if they still do) an “airport development fee” of £1 per passenger. It basically means that you need to buy a ticket at the airport to join the line for the security screening (TSA). HOW OPTIONAL IS THAT?!
This post is spot on. We stayed at a Wyndham at Bonnet Creek for the first night of a 5 night stay in October. I booked the hotel through a booking engine (can’t remember which one) which said nothing about the resort fee. Upon check in I was told there would be a $40 resort fee. We were there for about 12 hours and used none of the hotel’s amenities. If I had known the actual price of the room, I would have spent slightly more for a real Disney property on our first night. By the way, the Wyndham was unimpressive. We couldn’t wait to check in to Pop Century for the remainder of the trip.
I don’t see any other way to contact you to let you know one of your advertisers on your site – DVC Rental – will NOT refund our money for our stay during the Disney resort shut down. Their customer service has been very lacking since the shut down.