Everyone who has shopped online for hotel rooms, vacation rentals or plane tickets has had the experience of finding a reasonable upfront price that then skyrockets at checkout because of undisclosed fees.
Common culprits include the dreaded resort fee, vacation rental cleaning fees and, on some airlines, the cost of choosing seats. Such annoying costs that creep in at the end of the transaction are widely known as junk fees, which complicate the process of making apples-to-apples price comparisons.
A Federal Trade Commission rule went into effect this month preventing hotels, vacation rentals and ticketing services for live entertainment events from obfuscating extra costs. Those types of businesses are now required to show an upfront price that includes all fees, and they are not allowed to tack on any at the end.
This win for consumers will radically change the way we make bookings online for travel and entertainment. The F.T.C. estimates that Americans waste 53 million hours a year comparing prices on live-event tickets and short-term lodging. Now, we can do a quick web search to get a price comparison across multiple vendors and pick the option that suits our budget.
But — and I’m sorry to be a buzzkill — this is where the good news ends.
Hidden fees still lurk in other areas, like airfares, car rental reservations and movie tickets. In other words, the experience of online booking has improved for some categories but not all.
“People really feel nickel-and-dimed to death,” said Chuck Bell, a director at Consumer Reports, who has lobbied against junk fees for years.
Here’s what to know.
Deal Hunting for Hotels and Event Tickets Is Much Easier
Because of the new F.T.C. rule, sites that aggregate booking information for hotels, like Hotels.com and Expedia, are now showing total room rates including taxes and all fees.
On Hotels.com, for example, the site quoted $825 for a two-night stay at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan. After I clicked through, the checkout page showed the breakdown, which included a $60 resort fee and taxes.
Similarly, when I’m browsing vacation homes on Airbnb, the total price appears, including the service fee that users pay to the site as well as the cleaning fee charged by a host. Sites selling tickets for live events, including Ticketmaster and StubHub, now show a total cost including their service fees.
While the fees themselves have not gone away, the true costs are now transparent. That makes it easier to stick to a budget when shopping around.
Brian Kelly, founder of The Points Guy, a blog that follows travel deals, advises that travelers use third-party hotel aggregators like Expedia to compare prices, then book directly with the hotel. If something goes wrong with your hotel reservation, the issue can be resolved more efficiently by the hotel’s support staff than by the aggregator, which is essentially a middleman, he added.
The F.T.C. said in a statement that it focused on two industries that had a history of deceptive pricing practices.
“Consumers were frustrated with shopping for event tickets or hotel stays, only to be hit with expensive and mysterious fees when they go to pay,” according to the agency’s statement. “Consumers now will have the whole truth.”
But Hidden Fees Remain Elsewhere
Online bookings get more complicated for other categories, like plane tickets.
A search on Alaska Airlines’ website showed a flight from New York to San Francisco in June for $320. Only after I clicked through did it become clear that selecting my own seat would cost an extra $200, bringing the total to $520.
Airlines were not included in the F.T.C.’s junk fees rule because they are under the jurisdiction of the Department of Transportation, but that agency has been making similar pushes for greater price transparency. Last month, the department announced a rule requiring airlines to display upfront any fees for checked bags and seat selections. The airlines sued the department this month, arguing that the rule would confuse consumers by giving them too much information. As a result, the rule has not yet gone into effect.
“This is an industry that lives on sticker shock,” said William McGee, an aviation expert at the American Economic Liberties Project, a nonprofit that fights corporate monopolies. “The gotchas just never stop.”
He added that consumers would have to continue working diligently to understand the true price of a plane ticket.
One useful technique to streamline the research process is to become familiar with the types of fees a business typically adds at checkout. Budget airlines, for example, typically charge for extras. If you’re using an airfare comparison tool like Google Flights, you can filter out budget airlines from your search and look for tickets only from brands with simpler pricing structures.
Junk fees are still hiding in lots of our online transactions. The total cost of a movie ticket, including the so-called convenience fee for booking online, is often not shown until after you’ve picked a showtime and seat. Some rental car companies add a charge for operating at an airport, among other fees.
Long story short, stay on guard.
Long Term, Transparency May Force Prices Down
Even though the new rules sound like small wins, consumers may have bigger changes to look forward to, Mr. Bell said. Now that hotels and live event services have to be clearer about their pricing, they may face competitive pressure to lower their fees.
“It’ll be nice to see some of the fees reduced or eliminated,” he added.
Brian X. Chen is the lead consumer technology writer for The Times. He reviews products and writes Tech Fix, a column about the social implications of the tech we use.
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