These 7 U.S. Cities Are Now Charging “Resort” Fees: Here’s How To Spot Them

It’s probably the most irritating moments in fashionable journey. You’re on the ultimate reserving display on your lodge, and there it’s: a compulsory, non-negotiable “$40 per night destination fee” that immediately inflates the whole value. You’re a savvy traveler, it’s coming, however the feeling of being performed is at all times recent.

For years, this was a irritating trick you largely needed to fear about in locations like Las Vegas. But the resort charge plague has unfold. Based on a deep dive into what actual vacationers are saying on the bottom in 2025, the resort charge plague has formally escaped Las Vegas and is now invading main U.S. cities, turning a ‘resort’ drawback right into a nationwide traveler headache.

Why Hotels Invented The “Destination Fee”

Let’s be crystal clear: this charge just isn’t a tax. Every traveler is aware of to anticipate respectable authorities fees on their invoice. A “resort fee,” nonetheless, is a compulsory charge invented by the lodge itself, and 100% of it goes straight into their pocket.

So why are you now seeing it in locations like Chicago or New York? Because a lodge in the course of a metropolis cannot logically cost a “resort fee,” they’ve merely rebranded it as a “destination fee” or “urban amenity fee.” It’s a intelligent identify change for the very same objective: to indicate you a sexy, lower cost in search outcomes, solely to hit you with the true, increased value on the final doable second. It’s a apply that vacationers on boards like Reddit are universally calling a “bait-and-switch.”

So, Do You Actually Have To Pay It?

This is the million-dollar query, and right here is the brutally trustworthy, on-the-ground reply for 2025: Yes, 99% of the time, you’re caught paying it.

Traveler boards are full of tales of individuals making an attempt to struggle the charge on the entrance desk, and the overwhelming consensus is that it is a shedding battle. Front desk employees are skilled with scripted responses, telling you it is “mandatory” and was disclosed within the high quality print of your reserving. The exhausting reality is that by clicking “book,” you might have technically agreed to their phrases, nonetheless misleading they could be.

The Myth of the Las Vegas Rollback

You might need heard rumors that Las Vegas was beginning to roll again its notorious resort charges. Based on real-world studies, that is a delusion. While a single lodge like Resorts World could run a limited-time promotion to get heads in beds, this can be a advertising tactic, not an business pattern. The main gamers—MGM, Caesars, Wynn—are nonetheless charging large charges, typically over $50 per evening, and they aren’t backing down.

The New Battlegrounds: 7 Cities Where The Fees Are Spreading

Based on latest traveler studies, these are the cities the place the “destination fee” plague is now most rampant.

1. New York City: The Big Apple is a serious offender. Travelers constantly report being shocked by necessary “urban fees” of $30-$50 per evening at lodges all throughout Manhattan.

2. Chicago: The Windy City will blow a gap in your pockets. Hotels all through the downtown Loop and River North neighborhoods have embraced the vacation spot charge, with vacationers reporting charges of $25 or extra per evening.

3. Nashville: Music City is singing a tragic tune for vacationers. As one of many hottest new vacationer locations, its lodges have been fast so as to add “amenity fees” that may inflate your invoice by 15-20%, a standard criticism in journey boards.

4. Austin: The capital of “cool” has adopted a really uncool pattern. Many of the fashionable new lodges in downtown Austin now have necessary every day charges which are typically poorly disclosed on the time of reserving, a frequent supply of frustration for guests.