What are resort fees and do I have to pay them?

At a glance#

Why the fee exists#

Hardly any line on a hotel bill produces as much irritation as the daily surcharge. It is mandatory, it does not appear in comparisons, and it is justified with services that are a matter of course elsewhere.

Hotel prices are compared mostly in lists, and those lists sort by the room rate. Every amount sitting outside that rate improves a property’s position. The resort fee is the most consistent form of that trick: mandatory, applied to every booking, and still outside the compared price. A hotel price only becomes a price once taxes and fees are included, and on most sites that view has to be switched on deliberately.

The justification does not hold up well. The services usually named, such as internet, gym access, bottled water, local calls or pool towels, are included without a fee in comparable properties, and their value regularly sits below the amount charged. In many jurisdictions the fee is itself taxed, which widens the gap to the compared price again.

What began as a quirk of individual resorts now appears in city hotels, in mid-range properties and even in some budget brands, often under the name destination fee. The spread has a simple cause. A property without a fee looks worse in a comparison although it is cheaper, and that disadvantage puts pressure on it to introduce one.

Seen that way, the resort fee is less a service than a shift of part of the price to the one place where nobody compares it. It is a pricing decision made long before the trip, which is why it can be spotted before booking and can almost never be changed afterwards.

How it surfaces during booking#

Where it appears#

The search list almost never shows the fee. The room rate is displayed, and the fee turns up as a note in small type or not at all.

At the final step of booking it usually sits in the price breakdown, marked as payable at the property and therefore left out of the total. The confirmation generally shows it as well. Finding it there removes any basis for a later objection; not finding it creates a good one. In a long confirmation, phrases like payable at the property, additional fees or hotel notes are the most reliable search terms.

Where a site offers a display of totals including taxes and fees, switching it on changes the search list itself. The property that hides the most stops being rewarded for it, and the ranking that results regularly looks different from the first one.

On the bill at checkout it appears as its own line. Checking a bill only against the total means seeing it there and assuming it is a tax.

How it hides#

The most common route is separating price from settlement. The price is online, the fee is on site, and the two never meet on the same screen.

Naming does the rest. Destination fee, amenity fee, facility fee and similar names mean the same thing and are harder to search for. In a city hotel the destination fee rests on an even thinner justification than at a resort, because there is no resort for it to pay for, and in some booking flows the term never appears at all, only a note about additional amounts payable on site. Searching for the English term finds the disclosure faster.

Currency blurs it further. On bookings abroad the fee is quoted in local currency, and the amount feels smaller than it is, as dynamic currency conversion describes for the related effect.

Timing and order of display matter too. Some properties charge the fee only above a certain length of stay or only on certain days, so the booking view shows a lower total than applies. Where the fee appears only after the card details are entered, the decision has psychologically been made, and few people abandon the booking at that point.

Some properties split it up altogether, charging several small fees for internet, the gym and cleaning instead of one large one. In that form the total is even harder to notice.

Worked example: one week in two properties#

Two properties show the same room rate. One charges a resort fee and the other does not.

Property A ranks higher and costs more, because the compared price is not the price paid. As long as comparison lists sort by the room rate, unbundling pays for every property, and as long as that does not change the fee will stay.

The tax on the fee is easily forgotten. It is a real additional burden and appears in no price overview, because neither the fee nor the tax on it is shown there. The fee portion usually earns no points either, which quietly lowers the return on the stay inside the programme. Two properties with the same room rate can end up a three-figure amount apart over a week.

Nothing about the room at Property A is better for the extra money. The internet, the gym and the towels on the fee’s list are the kind of thing a comparable property includes in the rate.

Only the total after fee and tax is comparable with other properties. Putting the real amounts from the two confirmations in place of the daily charges settles the ranking, and the result often bears little resemblance to the list in the comparison portal.

Families with two rooms pay twice. The fee is charged per room and per night, never per person, so it doubles on a booking that appears in a portal as one stay, and over a week that produces an amount equal to a whole night.

What applies to award stays#

On an award stay the night is paid and the fee still applies. That is the most unpleasant form, because it lowers the value of the points directly. A few programmes waive the fee on award stays, and that point is worth more when comparing programmes than many advertised benefits.

The value of an award booking only shows once the fee is subtracted from the cash saved. Then it is clear whether the points were worth spending, as points plus cash describes for the related calculation. Free night certificates work the same way: the night is free, the fee is not, as free night certificates describes.

Bookings through a portal carry the fee as well, even where a total was displayed. The portal sells the night, the fee belongs to the property, and the two are separate transactions, as direct vs OTA describes. Vouchers and points portals are a special case. The fee is almost always excluded there because the voucher covers the room rate and nothing else, and leaving it out of the sum makes a stay look free when it is not.

When it is not worth disputing the fee#

Arguing at the desk achieves nothing in these cases:

• When the fee is in the confirmation. It is then part of the contract.
• When it is a government charge. Occupancy taxes and tourist levies are not resort fees.
• On portal bookings with a disclosure. The disclosure counts even when it was small.
• After checkout. A claim without a prior objection has little prospect.
• On very short stays. On one night the amount is small, and the time spent arguing exceeds the gain.

When disputing it does pay#

Where the fee was disclosed at no point in the booking, it is contestable. The confirmation is the evidence, and a screenshot of the booking page supports it. Saving the price breakdown as an image at booking preserves the terms that applied, whatever the website shows later.

Where the named services are not available, the same holds: a closed pool or a shut gym undermines the justification. And where the property charges a different amount than announced, the difference can be removed, which happens more often than it should.

If the fee appears at check-in without having been mentioned anywhere, the confirmation goes on the counter together with a request to remove it. Without prior disclosure the odds are good; with disclosure they are close to zero, however friendly the conversation. An objection is made politely and once. The desk either has authority to remove the fee or does not, and a second attempt the same evening changes nothing.

Longer stays justify asking before booking. Over two weeks the total reaches a real sum, and some properties waive the fee above a certain length of stay without ever mentioning it. Business travellers on corporate rates often find it negotiated away and check that before booking.

Where a programme benefit explicitly excludes the fee, the programme rule governs. It sits in the programme description, as hotel elite status describes, and it is an exception, not a general elite benefit.

Some cards with a travel credit reimburse such charges because they count as travel spending, and that is one of the few ways to be rid of them, as annual fee math describes.

Properties that have dropped the fee are harder to find in comparisons, because their advantage sits in the room rate and disappears there. Reviews find them sooner than price filters do, and after two trips to the same region a traveller knows which properties charge it. That mental list is faster than any search.

The most common mistakes#

• Comparing room rates without fees. Only the total including taxes and fees shows the real ranking.
• Ignoring the fee on award stays. It comes straight off the value of the points.
• Objecting only at checkout. A surprise fee is raised at check-in, while there is still something to discuss.
• Confusing occupancy tax with a resort fee. Government charges are not negotiable.
• Counting on a status waiver. A waiver is the exception and is written into the programme rules where it exists.
• Not reading the confirmation. It decides whether the fee was disclosed, and with it whether an objection has any chance.

Related topics#

• Hotel award categories
• Hotel elite status
• Points plus cash
• Free night certificates
• Dynamic currency conversion
• Late checkout