How to Avoid Resort Fees (and Which Hotel Points Waive Them)
What a resort fee actually is
A resort fee, sometimes called a destination or amenity fee, is a mandatory charge a hotel adds to every night of your stay on top of the advertised room rate. It is not a tip and not optional: it supposedly covers things like wifi, the pool, or the gym, whether you use them or not. The average US resort fee is about $42 a night, so a few nights can quietly add more than $120 to a bill that looked cheaper when you booked. They are most common in resort destinations and big-city tourist markets.
Where resort fees hit hardest
Resort fees cluster in a handful of markets. Las Vegas is the worst, where a $45-plus nightly fee can rival the room rate itself. Hawaii resorts routinely charge $40 to $60, and Orlando, Miami, Scottsdale and Phoenix, and most beach and ski resorts pile them on too. Big-city hotels increasingly add destination fees as well. If you are headed somewhere that markets itself as a resort, assume there is a fee until you confirm otherwise.
The points loophole: which chains waive resort fees
Here is the trick most travelers miss: when you book a stay entirely with points, some chains waive the resort fee and some do not. It is one of the clearest reasons to favor a particular loyalty program for a resort trip.
| Program | Resort fee on award stays | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| World of Hyatt | Waived (none) | No resort, destination, or surcharge fees on award redemptions at all |
| Hilton Honors | Waived | On full-points stays and free-night certificates |
| Marriott Bonvoy | Charged | Still applies on points stays; status does not waive it |
| IHG One Rewards | Charged | No waiver on award stays, even with status |
World of Hyatt is the cleanest: it charges no resort fees, destination fees, or other surcharges on award stays, which is one more reason its points punch above their weight. Hilton waives resort fees on stays booked entirely with points or a free-night certificate. Marriott and IHG, by contrast, let their hotels charge the fee even when you pay with points, and your elite status will not save you. See the chain-by-chain rundown.
How this changes which points to use
In a resort-fee market, the program you book with can swing the real cost by $40 a night or more. For a week in Las Vegas or Hawaii, booking Hyatt or Hilton on points instead of Marriott can save $250 to $400 in fees alone, on top of the cash room rate you avoid. So when you are choosing where to spend points for a resort, weight Hyatt and Hilton heavily. See Hawaii on points, Las Vegas on points, and which cards transfer to which hotel program.
If you have to pay cash
When points are not an option, resort fees are hard to dodge, since they are mandatory and disclosed in the fine print. A few things help: book the direct member rate rather than a third-party site, ask at check-in whether the fee is waived for loyalty members or on certain rates (rare but worth a try), and dispute a fee that was never disclosed, regulators have cracked down on hidden hotel fees, so undisclosed ones can sometimes be removed. But the honest answer is that the surest way to avoid a resort fee is to book the stay on Hyatt or Hilton points.
Frequently asked questions
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