It’s one of the vital irritating moments in fashionable journey. You’re on the ultimate reserving display screen on your resort, and there it’s: a compulsory, non-negotiable “$40 per night destination fee” that immediately inflates the entire value. You’re a savvy traveler, you recognize it’s coming, however the feeling of being performed is all the time recent.
For years, this was a irritating trick you principally needed to fear about in locations like Las Vegas. But the resort payment plague has unfold. Based on a deep dive into what actual vacationers are saying on the bottom in 2025, the resort payment plague has formally escaped Las Vegas and is now invading main U.S. cities, turning a ‘resort’ downside right into a nationwide traveler headache.
Why Hotels Invented The “Destination Fee”
Let’s be crystal clear: this payment will not be a tax. Every traveler is aware of to count on legit authorities costs on their invoice. A “resort fee,” nevertheless, is a compulsory payment invented by the resort itself, and 100% of it goes instantly into their pocket.
So why are you now seeing it in locations like Chicago or New York? Because a resort 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 function: to point out you a sexy, lower cost in search outcomes, solely to hit you with the true, increased value on the final potential 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 stuffed with tales of individuals making an attempt to combat the payment on the entrance desk, and the overwhelming consensus is that it is a shedding battle. Front desk employees are educated 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 could have technically agreed to their phrases, nevertheless misleading they could be.
The Myth of the Las Vegas Rollback
You may need heard rumors that Las Vegas was beginning to roll again its notorious resort charges. Based on real-world stories, that is a fable. While a single resort like Resorts World might run a limited-time promotion to get heads in beds, this can be a advertising tactic, not an trade pattern. The main gamers—MGM, Caesars, Wynn—are nonetheless charging huge charges, usually over $50 per night time, and they don’t seem to be backing down.
The New Battlegrounds: 7 Cities Where The Fees Are Spreading
Based on latest traveler stories, 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 persistently report being shocked by necessary “urban fees” of $30-$50 per night time at inns 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 payment, with vacationers reporting charges of $25 or extra per night time.
3. Nashville: Music City is singing a tragic tune for vacationers. As one of many hottest new vacationer locations, its inns have been fast so as to add “amenity fees” that may inflate your invoice by 15-20%, a standard grievance in journey boards.
4. Austin: The capital of “cool” has adopted a really uncool pattern. Many of the stylish new inns in downtown Austin now have necessary day by day charges which are usually poorly disclosed on the time of reserving, a frequent supply of frustration for guests.
5. Orlando: An extended-time offender, Orlando’s resort charges should not only for the theme park inns anymore. Many inns on International Drive and even close to the airport now cost them, a lot to the shock of households who thought that they had discovered a budget-friendly possibility.
6. San Francisco: As if town wasn’t costly sufficient, many inns within the Union Square and Fisherman’s Wharf areas have added “urban amenity fees” to their charges, a apply broadly condemned by latest guests.
7. Miami: From South Beach to Downtown, resort and vacation spot charges are an anticipated, and universally irritating, a part of virtually any resort keep in Miami, with vacationers usually reporting that the charges present no actual worth.
