{"id":132583,"date":"2026-02-13T16:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T16:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/132583\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T16:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T16:14:08","slug":"watch-out-for-5-hidden-hotel-fees-as-nyc-puts-ban-on-junk-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/132583\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch out for 5 hidden hotel fees as NYC puts ban on ‘junk’ charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Don\u2019t sleep on these sneaky fees.<\/p>\n

New York City recently banned \u201cjunk\u201d hotel fees, emphasizing the hidden costs that often surprise hotel guests.<\/p>\n

As the city prepares to host the FIFA World Cup this summer, city officials announced<\/a> on Jan. 21 that hidden hotel fees and surprise credit card holds will soon be illegal under a new rule from the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With this rule, which aims to curb inscrutable \u201cservice\u201d fees, booking platforms must include all itemized charges in their advertised hotel rates.<\/p>\n

And for the first time in America, hotels will be required to disclose credit card holds and advance deposits, including hold amount, potential retention reasons and refund timeline.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder this rule, if you check out and suddenly there\u2019s a fee you didn\u2019t see before, that\u2019s illegal,\u201d DCWP commissioner Sam Levine said at the time of the announcement.<\/p>\n

This applies to not just hotels physically located in New York City, but also to any hotel or booking site that advertises prices to New York City customers. The new rule takes effect Feb. 21.<\/p>\n

There are a few different hidden hotel costs that guests should look out for, whether or not they\u2019re in New York City.<\/p>\n

Resort fees<\/p>\n

Resort or destination fees are one of the most common hidden hotel charges that guests run into.<\/p>\n

These daily charges \u2014 typically ranging from $15 to $50 per day \u2014 are added on top of the base room rate and taxes, supposedly to cover \u201camenities\u201d such as Wi-Fi, pool access, gym usage and so on, according to NerdWallet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At some properties, the resort fee could even end up costing guests more than the room itself.<\/p>\n

In reality, these fees pay for things \u201cyou can\u2019t even get out of, even if you don\u2019t want them,\u201d Tracy Lamourie, founder and managing director at Lamourie Media, told Newsweek<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re paying for pool towels; you\u2019re paying for things like local calls on a hotel phone that literally nobody ever picks up anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ANew York City\u2019s new \u201cjunk\u201d fee rule takes effect on Feb. 21. DC Studio \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Early check-in and late checkout<\/p>\n

Early check-in and late checkout fees are becoming increasingly common, and rather than being treated like a premium service, they\u2019re more often looked at as a penalty, Lamourie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHotels know that flight times usually do not line up with regular hotel check-in and checkout times,\u201d she explained. \u201cSo, they monetize that by charging for early check-in and late checkout instead of using those as points for frequent travelers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wi-Fi<\/p>\n

Free Wi-Fi is still not standard in hotels, much to guests\u2019 surprise<\/a>. According to Lamourie, many fees for internet have actually increased \u2014 and they\u2019re bundled in new ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes, instead of one Wi-Fi fee for the whole room, you\u2019ll see the fee charged per device,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery phone, every laptop has to pay the Wi-Fi fee, and that adds up quickly if you have more than one person and more than one device.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ANYC is also cracking down on credit card holds at hotels. peopleimages.com \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Parking<\/p>\n

Perhaps not as common for people traveling into Manhattan, parking fees are still an area where costs can quickly add up.<\/p>\n

Lamourie noted that dynamic parking fees are coming more common, \u201cthe same way a hotel night rate goes up and down, depending on whether it\u2019s a weekend or whether there\u2019s an event going.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something travelers often haven\u2019t accounted for, and it can make a big difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Credit card holds<\/p>\n

It\u2019s common for hotels to ask for a credit card to put on file upon check-in and place a temporary charge to cover any potential incidental expenses. According to Sofi<\/a>, the charge can range from $20 to $200 above the price of your room.<\/p>\n

Cracking down on the credit card means NYC is \u201cimplementing the strongest hotel consumer protections in the United States,\u201d Levine said, noting that it\u2019s \u201cthe first requirement of its kind in the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t sleep on these sneaky fees. New York City recently banned \u201cjunk\u201d hotel fees, emphasizing the hidden costs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[42539,810,232,57,9,56,63,65,64,956,82],"class_list":["post-132583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-fees","tag-hotels","tag-lifestyle","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-travel","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}