Comparing hotel prices shouldn’t be hard, but hidden fees can make figuring out the real price of your stay a difficult feat. Of course, we’re talking about resort fees—those universally hated fees that hotels and resorts charge in destinations like Hawaii and Las Vegas.

Resort fees are usually charged to cover amenities like Wi-Fi and gym access, but they’re not optional. You have no choice but to pay them even if you choose not to use the amenities they cover. While some members of U.S. Congress try to pass legislation to prevent excess fees from being charged or at least require hotels to include them in rates, the last bill proposed in 2022 is still standing in committee.

As Congress spends their time mulling it over, consumers should still focus their energy on watching out for resort fees and doing their best to avoid them.

If you’re planning a trip this year and hoping to avoid unnecessary out-of-pocket costs, steering clear of resort fees is an exceptionally smart move.

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Learn To Spot Resort Fees When You Book

First off, make sure you know how and where to look for resort fees when you’re shopping for a hotel stay. These fees are not always prominently displayed but you can find and note them if you know what you’re looking for.

For starters, resort fees are not always listed on travel aggregator websites initial search pages. If you search for a hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Priceline.com, for example, you’ll notice that there’s the listed platform price, but the total price that includes taxes and fees only shows up when you go to book.

Make sure you don’t take the first word on the price for your stay. You may need to click through several pages of fine print to find resort fees, taxes and other costs that can add to the price of your room.

Of course, this also gives you the chance to look for properties that don’t charge a resort fee at all. If you desperately want to avoid resort and hotel fees when you travel, searching for properties that don’t charge hidden fees is your best bet.


Book an Award Stay With Hotel Points

If you want to stay in the top resorts without paying a resort fee, you should consider earning hotel points with certain brands and booking an award stay. Hilton Honors and World of Hyatt have policies that allow them to waive resort fees on award stays, which can present a significant savings.

As an example of how this can work, nights at the Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino cost 80,000 points each, and if you have at least Hilton Honors™ Silver status, you get your fifth night free when you book with points. In total, that means a six-night stay would cost 400,000 Hilton Honors points, and in January, those rooms would cost over $900 per night.

This property charges a resort fee, but they call it a 15% service charge for each night you stay. By paying with points, this fee is waived.

Also worth noting: My Diamond status with Hilton Honors did help me receive $12.50 per day in food credits for two people at this property. We also got a discount on our beachfront cabana and we were told we would have gotten a room upgrade if the hotel hadn’t been booked up.

If you want to pay for stays with rewards and don’t want to pay resort fees, there are several hotel credit cards to consider that can help you achieve these goals. For example, you could consider the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card (terms apply) or the $0 annual fee Hilton Honors American Express Card (terms apply, see rates & fees).

You could also consider the $550-annual-fee Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express*, which is the hotel credit card I have. This card comes with automatic Hilton Diamond status, an up to $400 annual resort credit, an up to $200 airline fee statement credit and a $189 CLEAR® Plus credit as cardholder perks (enrollment is required for select benefits).

To earn rewards in the World of Hyatt program, you could choose among Chase travel credit cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or Chase Sapphire Reserve®. These cards earn Chase Ultimate Rewards® points that can be transferred at a 1:1 rate to World of Hyatt. You could also apply for The World of Hyatt Credit Card or the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card and earn Hyatt points directly.

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Earn Elite Status With a Hotel Brand

Speaking of The World of Hyatt Credit Card, this is a top card to consider if you want to avoid paying resort fees on award nights and paid stays. You’ll have to earn the top-tier Hyatt Globalist status in order to avoid resort fees on eligible paid stays, but the quest can be well worth it if you have the option to stay with Hyatt throughout the year and want to enjoy all the perks of top-level elite status.

The World of Hyatt Credit Card helps you reach Globalist faster since you are automatically upgraded to Discoverist status as a cardholder perk. You also get five qualifying night credits toward the next tier of status each year as a cardholder, as well as two additional qualifying night credits each time you spend $5,000 on your card.


Use Flexible Travel Credit

Also consider additional rewards credit cards that can help cover resort fees and additional travel incidentals. Fortunately, there are plenty to choose from—including cards with lucrative rewards structures. With the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (rates & fees), for example, you’ll earn 5 miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, 5 miles per dollar spent on Capital One Entertainment purchases through 12/31/25 and an unlimited 2 miles per dollar spent on other purchases. Plus, new cardmembers can earn 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening. The annual fee is $95. Also note that you’ll get a credit toward an application fee for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® worth up to $100.

On the redemption side of the equation, you can cash in your miles to cover any eligible travel purchase (including resort fees) at a rate of 1 cent per mile. This card also lets you transfer miles to several airline transfer partners.

Read more: Capital One Rewards: The Ultimate Guide


Drastic Methods To Avoid Resort Fees

If you are dead-set against paying resort fees ever again, the anti-resort fee website KillResortFees.com suggests some pretty over-the-top methods to avoid them. This website was started by attorney Lauren Wolfe in February 2016 after she vacationed in Key West and Miami and was told she had to pay the resort fees at the Doubletree by Hilton Key West and the Hyatt Centric South Beach. Once Wolfe learned that hardly anyone was advocating for the abolishment of these unadvertised and unnecessary add-on fees, she started her website.

To avoid paying resort fees, Wolfe has several suggestions like the idea that you should just refuse to pay. If the hotel clerk acts confused when you say you won’t pay, ask for the manager, she says. A hotel manager may just waive the resort fee to keep you happy—and to keep you from filing further complaints or leaving a bad review on Yelp or TripAdvisor.

Second, you can always dispute any resort fees charged to your credit card after the fact. Your credit card company might ask for documentation, in which case you could show them a screenshot of the hotel advertising “free internet access” or failing to list the resort fee on their website. If your hotel doesn’t take the time to fight the dispute you filed, you could get your resort fee back without a lot of hassle or stress.

Finally, Wolfe suggests filing a consumer complaint with your attorney general which may lead to a refund of your resort fees. You can also sue in small claims court, Wolfe says, although considering the time and effort you spend in the process, it may not be worth the minimal savings you’ll get back.


Bottom Line

At the end of the day, the best way to handle resort fees is to have a plan for them from the start. Paying for your hotel stay with a rewards program that waives resort fees is always a good idea, but so is shopping around for resorts that don’t charge this fee to begin with. Of course, you can also earn flexible travel credit or cash back with a credit card then use your points to get hotel and resort fees out of your life.

Whatever you do, don’t let hotels trick you into paying fees you never planned for. Hatch a plan to avoid these fees or book properties that don’t charge them. Hotels will continue charging hidden fees unless required to do otherwise, so it’s up to the consumer to be prepared.

Find the Best Hotel Rewards Credit Cards of 2024

To view rates and fees for Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card please visit this page.
To view rates and fees for Hilton Honors American Express Card, please visit this page.