You're Paying a Resort Fee at a Hotel With No Resort

$235 was the advertised rate. $320 was the bill. Nothing in between was a surprise to the hotel, because the hotel wrote both numbers itself. The gap has a name — a resort fee, charged at properties with no resort attached, itemised so it stays off a search results page that sorts by the smallest number on the tile. What's covered: where the fee actually came from (1997, and a Las Vegas workaround a year later), how the booking-site commission made hiding it profitable, why Nevada and New York tax the same fee at two different rates, the fact that loyalty-point and comped stays pay it too, the wildly disputed size of the pot (the FTC, an NYU professor and the industry's own lawyers disagree by hundreds of millions), a $6,100 fee bill on a $207 Holiday Inn room in Minnesota, Texas suing Booking Holdings over one line item, and what the FTC's junk fee rule does and doesn't fix — because the fee is now disclosed, explained, and still on your bill. Chapters: 0:00 $235 Room, a $320 Bill 0:23 A Fee Invented in 1997 1:16 Why Every Chain Copied It 1:55 Sorting by Room Rate 2:31 The Commission Loophole 3:31 One Fee, Two Tax Rates 6:03 Texas Sues Booking.com 8:04 The Junk Fee Rule Lands 8:56 Always the Room Rate