Hotels and short-term rental platforms operating in the United States must now display the full price a guest will pay — including mandatory resort, service, or convenience fees — as the most prominent figure in every advertisement and booking screen. The requirement comes from a Federal Trade Commission rule that took effect in mid-April 2025, roughly four months after it was finalized.
The rule, formally the Trade Regulation Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees, was published in the Federal Register on December 16, 2024, and became enforceable 120 days later, according to the Federal Trade Commission. It bars hotels, short-term lodging platforms, and live-event ticket sellers from advertising a lower headline rate and adding mandatory charges later in the booking flow — the practice known as drip pricing. Any fee a guest cannot avoid, such as a resort fee or a mandatory service charge, must be folded into the total shown upfront and displayed more prominently than any other price on the page.
Government-imposed charges are treated differently. Taxes and other government fees can still be listed separately from the advertised total, but the rule requires that their nature, purpose, and amount be disclosed clearly before a traveler agrees to pay. Fees for genuinely optional add-ons, such as early check-in, parking, or a pet stay, are not covered by the rule and can still be quoted separately, since a guest can decline them.
California adopted a parallel, and earlier, state law. Senate Bill 478, the state's Honest Pricing Law, took effect July 1, 2024, and explicitly names hotels and short-term rentals among the businesses that must advertise a complete price, with similar carve-outs for government taxes and optional charges, according to the California Attorney General's office. Other states have introduced comparable bills, though the federal rule is now the baseline that applies nationwide.
For a traveler comparing hotels in a new city, the practical change shows up at the search-results stage: the figure attached to a listing should already reflect what a resort fee used to add only at checkout. The rule does not cover charges that only appear once a guest arrives, such as minibar use or incidentals, and it does not apply outside the United States, so a nightly rate shown for a property in Europe or Latin America can still exclude local taxes or fees added on site.
For a related restaurants perspective, read How Restaurant Reservation Deposits and No-Show Fees Work.
For more context, read Venice Expands Day-Tripper Access Fee to 54 Days for 2025.
For more context, read How Backcountry Permit Lotteries Actually Work.
For more context, read How Norway's mountain huts still run on a stranger's honesty.