Since May 12, 2025, U.S. hotels and short-term rental sites have been legally required to show the full price of a room — resort fees, destination fees, and other mandatory charges included — before a traveler enters payment information, under the Federal Trade Commission's Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees. For beach-town bookers used to seeing a nightly rate balloon at checkout, the practical effect is that the number in the search results is now supposed to be the real number.
The rule targets what the FTC calls bait-and-switch pricing: advertising a low nightly rate, then adding mandatory charges — often labeled "resort," "amenity," or "destination" fees — later in the booking flow. Any business that advertises a price for short-term lodging must disclose the true total price, inclusive of mandatory fees, and that total must be shown more prominently than any broken-out rate. The FTC announced the final rule in a December 2024 press release; a companion notice, "FTC Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees to Take Effect on May 12, 2025," confirmed the effective date and pointed businesses and consumers to staff FAQs.
What has to be shown up front — and what doesn't
The rule doesn't cap or ban any fee, and it doesn't force a flat rate. A property can still charge a resort fee — it just has to be folded into the total price shown at the top of a listing, not revealed later at checkout. Truly optional charges are treated differently: parking, early check-in, or a cabana rental can still be quoted separately if clearly disclosed before a guest agrees to pay. What the rule bars is mislabeling a mandatory charge as optional, or letting an itemized breakdown visually outweigh the all-in total.
For beach travelers comparing a boardwalk motel against a bayfront resort, the intended result is an apples-to-apples search: the number in a search result or listing page should already include fees that used to surface only at checkout. Laura Chadwick, president and CEO of the Travel Technology Association, told the hospitality trade outlet Hotel Dive that the rule "sets a nationwide standard," adding that travelers now have "reassurance, backed by Federal Trade Commission enforcement, that again they can compare apples to apples."
Where the coverage still has gaps
The rule is federal but doesn't preempt state law, and enforcement runs through the FTC's own case-by-case authority rather than a private right of action for individual guests. Some states, including California, layered on their own fee-disclosure requirements around the same period. Chadwick noted that cross-border comparison shopping — a traveler in one state booking a stay in another — is exactly why a federal floor matters even where state rules already exist. The rule also reaches business-to-business pricing: if a property manager or booking platform passes an inaccurate total to a consumer-facing site, that transaction chain falls within the FTC's enforcement reach too, per Chadwick.
The practical takeaway for a shoreline reader: a total price shown at the top of a search result should now include mandatory fees, not just the room rate. If a booking flow still reveals a new mandatory charge only at the final payment step, that's the pattern the rule was written to stop. Terms and enforcement priorities can shift, so travelers comparing coastal lodging should still confirm the total shown at booking matches the total charged before completing a reservation. Shore News Now's Business News coverage tracks how rules like this one ripple into rental rates and town-level tourism economics along the coast.
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