There was a time when checking into a hotel meant you got the room and a handful of small comforts thrown in without a second thought. A gym pass, a parking spot, decent Wi-Fi to check your email. None of that felt like a luxury; it just felt like part of staying somewhere.
That expectation has quietly eroded over the past few years. New federal pricing rules in 2025 forced hotels to show these charges upfront instead of burying them at checkout, which means travelers are now seeing, in plain numbers, just how much used to be free.
1. Wi-Fi that once came standard
Free internet access was one of the first hotel amenities to disappear into a bundled fee rather than vanish outright. Many properties still advertise “complimentary Wi-Fi,” but the fine print often ties that promise to loyalty program tiers or excludes it entirely at hotels charging a resort fee. Hilton Honors, for example, is free to join and ensures guests get free standard Wi-Fi at all Hilton hotels, though the fine print states that free Wi-Fi may not be available at properties with a resort charge that includes Wi-Fi.[1]
The catch is that faster or more reliable connections often cost extra even when basic access is technically included. Basic Wi-Fi may come with the resort fee, while faster internet still costs more.[2] So the traveler trying to stream a video call or upload large files might find the “free” connection barely usable without an upgrade.
2. Parking that used to come with the room
Self-parking at a hotel was once assumed, the same way a bed or a shower was assumed. That’s no longer the case at a huge number of properties, particularly in cities, casino resorts, and beach destinations. Hotel parking fees cost, on average, $44 per night, according to 2024 data from ResortFeeChecker.com.[1]
Some hotels have gotten more aggressive about this than others, and the fees can appear even when a guest doesn’t have a car with them. Some travelers have even been charged for parking when they didn’t have a car parked at the hotel due to mandatory fees applied to all guests.[1] It’s a small but telling example of how a convenience became a flat, unavoidable line item.
3. Gym and fitness center access
A hotel gym used to be a simple perk, something you could use or ignore without any financial consequence either way. Increasingly, that access sits inside a resort fee rather than being included with the room itself. Resort fees are additional charges imposed by hotels, covering amenities like Wi-Fi, parking, gym access, pool use, and other on-site services, typically ranging from $10 to $50 per night.[3]
The frustrating part for many travelers is that the charge applies whether they set foot in the gym or not. You may still pay the fee even if you don’t use those services.[2] A business traveler who never leaves their room still ends up subsidizing a treadmill they’ll never touch.
4. Pool and beach chair access
Pool access at a resort feels like it should be part of the basic deal, especially at a property built around water views and warm weather. In practice, it’s now commonly folded into the same bundled fee that covers Wi-Fi and the gym. Destination fee hotels charge an extra nightly fee on top of the advertised room rate, meant to cover Wi-Fi, fitness or pool access, and sometimes local perks like shuttle service or dining credits.[4]
Beach-adjacent properties take this further by pricing in the equipment guests need to actually enjoy the beach. Some hotels add location-specific perks, like a beachfront property including beach chair or water sports rentals as part of the fee.[4] Bring your own gear, and you still pay the same amount as someone who rents everything on-site.
5. Housekeeping and everyday hotel basics
Daily housekeeping, bottled water, and small in-room touches used to be baked into the price of a stay without anyone giving it much thought. Now these things frequently show up as line items inside a fee that sounds more like a service package than a simple room charge. Common resort fee inclusions at Las Vegas properties list items such as Wi-Fi, fitness, newspaper, calls, boarding pass printing, parking, and even in-room coffee cups.[5]
What’s notable is how ordinary many of these bundled items actually are. The things guests may see as a “benefit” of the resort fee can include activities and amenities they would expect to already be included in the room rate, like local calls or an in-room safe.[3] A phone call or a safe used to be assumed, not sold.
6. Early check-in and late checkout
Flexibility around arrival and departure times used to depend mostly on how the front desk felt that day. Increasingly, it depends on how much a guest is willing to pay, particularly at branded chains that have systematized the process into a paid upgrade. Some premium travel credit cards now bundle hotel credits worth hundreds of dollars specifically toward paid bookings at partner hotel collections, a sign of how much flexibility around stays has shifted into a paid tier.[6]
Elite loyalty status can still unlock these perks for free in many cases, but that status itself often requires meeting spending thresholds or paying for a premium credit card. The casual traveler without status is far more likely to see a fee attached to a slightly earlier key card or a slightly later exit.
7. Welcome drinks and small in-room amenities
A welcome drink at check-in, a coffee maker stocked daily, a couple of bottles of water left in the room, these were the kind of tiny gestures that made a stay feel a bit more generous. Today, they’re frequently itemized inside the resort fee rather than offered as a genuine complimentary touch. These annoying extra fees are often charged at resort hotels to cover extra perks ranging anywhere from a welcome drink to phone calls to beach chairs.[3]
The value of these bundled extras depends heavily on whether a guest actually uses them. The value of these inclusions varies a lot, since some genuinely save money if used, while others, like in-room safes or local phone calls, are amenities many hotels provide for free anyway.[4] For someone who never touches the in-room coffee or skips the welcome drink, the fee still applies in full.
8. The resort fee itself, now shown upfront
The biggest shift isn’t a new fee. It’s that the fee bundling all of the above has become nearly impossible to avoid seeing before you book. A federal rule that took effect on May 12, 2025 doesn’t outlaw resort fees, but it requires hotels and short-term rentals to show the total advertised price with mandatory fees included.[7]
The rule changed visibility, not the underlying cost. The rule doesn’t ban resort fees, doesn’t cap them, and doesn’t tell hotels what they can or can’t charge. It’s a transparency rule, not a price regulation.[8] In Las Vegas alone, as of 2026, most major Strip hotels charge between $45 and $55 per night in resort fees, before tax.[8] That’s real money added to a stay that, not long ago, would have simply listed the room rate and stopped there.
What this means for the average traveler
None of this means hotel stays have become worse experiences overall. It means the price tag on the door rarely tells the whole story anymore, and the perks once bundled quietly into a room rate are now itemized, priced, and sometimes optional to avoid entirely. The new disclosure rules make comparison shopping easier, since the resort fee amount now has to appear in the total price before booking[9] at most properties.
Reading the fine print before booking, asking about fees directly, and checking whether loyalty status waives them are now basic steps rather than extra effort. The free perks haven’t fully disappeared, but they’ve become something travelers need to actively look for instead of simply expect.
