Hyatt Hotels paying $1.25 million to settle Texas AG lawsuit over 'junk fees'

Hyatt Hotels to pay $1.25M to settle lawsuit

Hyatt Hotels will have to pay $1.25 million to settle a lawsuit over charging "junk fees." The AG accused Hyatt of hiding these fees in customer bills and violating Texas consumer protection laws. Heather Sullivan explains more.

HOUSTON - The Texas Attorney General is announcing that Hyatt Hotels will pay $1.25 million to settle a lawsuit over charging "junk fees." The AG accused Hyatt of hiding these fees in customer bills and violating Texas consumer protection laws.

Hyatt to pay $1.25 in settlement

The backstory:

The lawsuit alleged that Hyatt charged customers resort fees in addition to the advertised room rates. Even when the fees were eventually disclosed, it was done in a way that customers were unlikely to be alerted that the room rate was not the actual price.

The settlement now requires Hyatt to disclose any fees in the price upfront. Paxton has previously reached settlements with five other hotel chains for deceptive practices, including Marriott, Omni, Choice Hotels, Hilton, and Booking.com.

So what exactly is a resort fee?

Resort fees are also called amenity or destination fees and were added on to the price of the room when travelers check out. A Nerdwallet report found they range from $15 to $50 a night.

In 2025, a new federal law took effect requiring hotels to include extra fees in the price upfront, but it doesn't ban them.

"That did not get rid of resort fees entirely, but it did something really good for consumers.  It forced hotels to put the whole price at the initial booking stage, rather than what is often a price that could be quite low and a price that can be much higher with these resort fees," explained Sally French with Nerdwallet.

What you can do:

Nerdwallet offers tips to avoid hotel resort fees. The biggest one is to book using hotel loyalty program points.

"One of the best ways to do that is through booking a hotel on points, with the World of Hyatt program or the Hilton Honors program. These programs are some of the major two that do not charge resort fees for stays booked on points," said French.

Other ways to avoid resort fees include:

• Holding elite status in some hotel chain loyalty programs
• Using credits built up on travel credit cards to pay resort fees
• Asking for resort fees to be waived if you check in late and leave early and don't use any amenities
• Choosing hotels that don't charge resort fees
• Choose another type of stay, such an Airbnb or VRBO