Skift Take
This is going to be a slugfest. Some hotels view resort fees as key to business and argue that they are already transparent in how they advertise them. Consumers, states, and now federal legislators are putting great pressure on that notion. Something's gotta give — and the status quo is not a likely winner.
New bipartisan legislation in the U.S. Congress would change the way hotels and online travel agencies display what one supporter called "the most-hated fee in travel," hotel resort fees.
Democratic Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas and her Republican peer Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska have introduced the Hotel Advertising Transparency Act of 2019, a measure that would bar hotels, any other type of short-term rentals, or a "person" from advertising rates that don't include all fees, except for government-imposed taxes and fees.
There would be penalties for any person or entity that advertises rooms without including these fees, which are variously called resort fees, destination fees, cleaning fees, or facility fees, for example, in the initially listed room rate.
In the legislators' announcement about the proposed law, Lauren Wolfe, attorney for Travelers United, a consumer nonprofit backing the measure, said, "The U.S. Congress is taking on the most-hated fee in travel. We urge Congress to support this bipartisan common-sense bill. It is important to note that this bill does not just cover mandatory fees for hotels, but it also will require that all fees are disclosed in the advertised rate for short-term rentals.”
Other supporters of the bill include Consumer Reports, the Business Travel Coalition, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, the National Consumers League, and U.S. Public
