Since 12 May 2025 a federal rule requires US hotels — and every booking site selling them — to show you the total price including every mandatory fee, more prominently than any other price. This guide is that rule in full, the three things it still lets them leave out, the state and city rules that go further, and exactly what to do when a fee appears on your bill that was never in the total.
Federal Trade Commission, 16 CFR Part 464, published at 90 FR 2066 on 10 January 2025.
Before 12 May 2025 the cheapest-looking room genuinely could be the most expensive one. What changed is what has to be shown to you first — and what is still allowed to sit outside that number is where the surprises now come from.
The three permitted exclusions are government taxes and charges, shipping costs, and add-ons you affirmatively select. A pre-ticked box is not a selection you made. FTC, 16 CFR Part 464 and the Commission's own FAQ.
A hotel may charge a resort fee for the rest of time. It must simply include it in the price it shows you first.
Nor require it to bear any relationship to a service actually provided.
Government taxes and charges may be excluded from the up-front total, though they must be disclosed before you pay. That is real money and it is not in the headline number.
The total-price provisions took effect 21 February 2026. The credit-card hold and deposit disclosure provision has a separate, later date — one year after City Record publication. Most articles report only the first.
Two chapters before your next booking, and the rest for when a fee has already appeared on a folio.
The covered sites are required to show the total. The occupancy tax is legitimately outside it, is set locally, and is frequently larger than the resort fee.
Two seconds, and it is the entire evidence base for every dispute in the book. Websites change; a screenshot does not.
Resort, destination, amenity and facility are four names for the same thing. One question at the desk settles it: is this mandatory, or can I decline it?
Five categories, five questions — and the two lines almost nobody checks, one of which is a keying error and the other of which is the tax base.
Which body depends entirely on where the hotel is, and the book is organised by jurisdiction for exactly that reason. Then the card dispute, which has a 60-day deadline running from the statement.
Instant download. PDF and DOCX, so the letters can be edited rather than retyped.
Eighteen chapters in four parts — what is in force, booking so it does not happen, the bill and the dispute, and the paperwork.
The FTC rule, California, New York City, Minnesota, Colorado and Massachusetts — what each requires, what it excludes, and the exact date it took effect.
Thirteen rows across three options, including the tax you look up yourself and the parking question that catches drivers.
To the hotel about an undisclosed mandatory fee; a billing error notice to your card issuer; a complaint to a state Attorney General or city agency; an FTC report narrative; escalation to the brand rather than the property; a claim for costs after being walked; and a charge outside the published cancellation terms.
Establishing the card hold before you arrive; confirming mandatory fees at booking; is this fee mandatory, at the desk; asking for the manager; being walked; and chasing a hold that has not released.
Why credit and debit are completely different situations, what a hold actually is, and the two gaps this book could not fill and says so.
Five categories, five questions, and the two lines almost nobody checks.
Cleaning fees, platform service fees, the pre-ticked box problem, and the photographs that decide damage disputes.
What the Nebraska, District of Columbia and Texas actions actually required hotels to do — which is a good description of what to complain about when you do not get it.
Four prompts that genuinely help, and why never to ask an assistant what a hotel currently charges.
Before you book, at check-in, at checkout, and after you get home — including the 60-day deadline to diary.
Most coverage says hotels must show the total price and stops there. The three permitted exclusions are why your final bill can still exceed what you were shown, and they are where the remaining surprises live.
A fee that is a deceptive trade practice in New York City is governed by a different rule in California and by the FTC rule everywhere else. The complaint only works if it goes to a body with power over that hotel.
The only two sources that exist are the hotel industry's trade association, citing a 2014 study, and an advocacy group campaigning to ban the fees. Both are printed, labelled, side by side. Neither is presented as the answer.
The outcome of the District of Columbia's case against Marriott. The debit-card dispute deadline under Regulation E. Any legal right when a hotel walks you. New York City's occupancy tax rate. Each is listed rather than guessed at.
Chapter 10 and Letter 1, ideally before you leave the property.
Chapter 5, five minutes, including the tax you look up yourself.
Chapter 9 and Call script 6, which gets you the release reference your bank will ask for.
Chapter 13 — including an honest statement that no legal right to any of the usual conventions could be found.
Chapter 7. The rule covers short-term lodging, and cleaning fees are mandatory fees.
The rule requires disclosure, not abolition. What it gives you is the ability to see it and choose.
Chapter 8 says so plainly. The FTC rule is US law and the state rules are narrower still.
The book gives you a comparison method and the complaint routes, not a list.
A single mandatory fee on a single night is frequently more than this book. So is one occupancy tax line you did not budget for.
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An explanation of consumer protection rules. Not legal advice, and buying it creates no professional relationship.
That depends on what you were shown at the moment you booked, which is why the book tells you to screenshot it.
The only two prevalence figures that exist come from the trade association and from a group campaigning for a ban. Both appear, labelled, every time.
Five took effect within the last two years and one had not yet taken effect when this was written. Each carries its date.
This edition has just been released. Rather than publish testimonials from people who do not exist, these spaces are held for the first genuine reader reviews. On a product about being shown the real number, that seemed like the only defensible choice.
If showing the screenshot at the desk got a mandatory fee removed, we would like to hear it — in your own words, with your permission.
We will not publish claims about amounts refunded. Outcomes depend on things no document controls.
Reserved for someone who complained to the right agency for the right jurisdiction and got a result. That is the chapter we would most like to hear worked.
Not as a general right. The FTC rule requires the fee to be disclosed in the total price, not abolished. What you can do is decline to book a hotel that charges one — now much easier, because you can see it up front — and dispute a mandatory fee that was not in the total you were shown.
Most often the occupancy tax, which the rule permits to be excluded from the up-front total. Then optional add-ons you selected. Then, occasionally, a mandatory fee that should have been included — which is Chapter 10 and Letter 1.
The rule requires the total price to be disclosed clearly and conspicuously and shown more prominently than any other pricing information. A mandatory fee buried in terms is what the rule was made about. Chapters 11 and 12 tell you where to take it.
Preferably not. A hold on a debit card takes your actual cash rather than your available credit, and the dispute route for a debit transaction is a different and generally weaker one. Georgia's Attorney General advises using a credit card at hotel check-in for this reason.
Yes. The rule covers short-term lodging including vacation rentals and home-shares. Chapter 7 covers cleaning fees, platform fees and the pre-ticked box problem.
As a matter of law, this book could not establish that you are owed anything specific — and says so. As a matter of near-universal practice the walking hotel covers the first night at a comparable substitute and the transport. Chapter 13.
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Open it, read the five-minute booking routine, and take one screenshot on your next booking. If it is not what you expected, email sales@viralbydesign.co within 7 days of purchase and you get a full refund. No forms, no explanation required.
Government taxes, shipping, and add-ons you affirmatively select may still sit outside the number you are shown. Knowing which of those your extra charge was is the difference between an annoyance and a refund.
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