![Emma Heming Willis on moving husband Bruce Willis into a second home for dementia care: 'I know it raises eyebrows [but] you have to do what's right'](https://www.newsbeep.com/il/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/morningstar-og.png)
By Charles Passy
A woman’s complaint on TikTok about being charged $500 in added fees on her Hawaiian honeymoon has gone viral
Hotel resort fees typically cover a range of services and amenities, such as high-speed internet access, bottles of water and use of a gym and pool. But many travelers say such items should just be included in the daily rate.
Have travelers decided they’re done with hotels that charge them a daily resort fee?
Certainly, that was the sentiment of one woman who vacationed in Hawaii for her honeymoon at a Marriott (MAR) property and said she had to pay $500 in such fees during her stay. She shared her disappointment in a recent TikTok video that has garnered 1.7 million views.
“Dude, travel in the U.S. is dead and it’s all cause of corporate greed,” said the woman, who goes by the moniker Funkshe.
She cited the various amenities the resort fee covered, from yoga classes to banana-bread muffins, and implied they were of no particular value to her. (She called the muffins “s-tty.”) She also pointed out that the fee covered high-speed internet access, which she was already guaranteed through her Marriott Bonvoy membership.
Adding to the frustration: The resort charged $200 extra to reserve a beach chair in a prime location, she said.
“Why would I pay $200 as a guest on top of…this resort fee that’s charging me for things that I don’t want?” she said.
Nearly 7,000 people have commented on the video, with many voicing similar sentiments.
“Resort fees are the biggest scam in travel,” said one person.
“I have 0 tolerance for being nickel & dimed after I already extend myself to go on vacation,” said another.
The woman who posted the video didn’t respond to a request for comment. Nor did a press representative for Marriott.
Resort fees, which can cover everything from bottles of water to use of hotel gyms and pools, have become a significant source of revenue for hotels. One pre-pandemic survey pegged the total for various hotel fees and surcharges at nearly $3 billion a year in the U.S. A recent NerdWallet study found that the average hotel fee amounted to $35 a day, though the woman in the TikTok video said she paid $52 plus tax.
The bottom line? “These small charges add up and result in big bucks for brands,” said Lauren Gumport, a vice president of Faye Travel Insurance. Gumport added that the revenue has become all the more important for hoteliers looking to make up for lost revenue during the pandemic.
Of course, not all hotels levy such fees. In fact, the American Hotel & Lodging Association cites research from 2022 showing just 6% of the 62,000-plus U.S. properties do so.
Still, that’s more than 3,000 hotels. And the charges remain a significant thorn in travelers’ sides.
In that regard, it’s perhaps not surprising that the Federal Trade Commission put new rules into effect this year that require hotels to clearly disclose all fees, so as to avoid what it calls “bait-and-switch pricing.” The same rules apply to live events, such as concerts.
Nevertheless, the FTC rules don’t stop hotels from applying the fees – it just requires hotels to be more transparent about them.
Travel-industry experts say hotels started embracing the idea of breaking out the fees from the overall cost years ago as a way to seem more affordable. So that $200-a-night room might appear as a $150 one, with a $50 added daily resort fee. That became particularly critical with the advent of online booking through travel sites, where every hotel is pitted against each other price-wise, experts say.
Georgia Fowkes, an adviser with Altezza Travel, a tour operator, also pointed out another advantage for hotels to break out a resort fee: If a room is booked through a travel site, the hotel has to pay a commission to that platform. But the commission applies only to the room rate, not the resort fee, so the hotel gets to keep all the fee revenue to itself.
While some make the case that resort fees end up covering basic items that hotels might normally bake into their pricing, Mehmet Erdem, a professor and chair at the University of Nevada Las Vegas’ College of Hospitality, has a slightly different view.
Erdem noted the fees started becoming a reality around the same time that hotels had to invest heavily in information technology, particularly so they could offer high-speed internet service that would accommodate many devices at once. In effect, the price of doing business became much higher – and thus there was a thought to pass that on to the consumer as a separate charge, he explained.
“People don’t realize the cost,” he said of the upgraded technology.
The question remains as to whether consumers can do anything about the charges. Sally French, a travel expert with NerdWallet (NRDS) who formerly wrote for MarketWatch, pointed out that some hotel chains will not apply a resort fee if you book with them using points. She also noted that some prominent hoteliers never charge a resort fee, citing Disney (DIS) and its many properties as a key example. (Disney didn’t respond to a request for comment.)
French added that pushback from travelers about the fees is something the industry may have to address.
“Customers are saying, ‘We don’t want to go to these places,'” French said. “It puts a bad taste in people’s mouths.”
Indeed, hotels that don’t charge these fees may see more travelers embracing them as a result. Certainly, that’s proved the case at Crane’s Beach House, a boutique resort in Delray Beach, Fla.
The 28-room property has made its “no hidden fees” policy central to its promotional campaigns of late, and said bookings have increased as a result. While the resort isn’t on the cheaper side – rooms can run $500 a day on average during the prime winter season – it notes that a range of services and amenities, such as two swimming pools, parking and, yes, beach chairs, are included in the rates.
Guests just appreciate the clarity and simplicity of the pricing model, explained Cathy Balestriere, the hotel’s general manager.
“They can come on vacation and not worry,” she said.
Read next: I want to escape the U.S. political climate as a ‘digital nomad’ abroad. I earn $98,000 – how can I do this?
-Charles Passy
This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
10-04-25 0954ET
Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.