Quick answer: Families avoid resort fees by booking all points stays at Hyatt or Hilton, where the fee is waived. Elsewhere, compare the total price first, since a $25 to $55 nightly fee adds $175 to $385 over a week before tax.

We have watched a “free” night turn into a bill at the front desk, and it is almost always the same line item. The room was covered by points. The resort fee was not. Once you know which programs waive that fee and which ones never do, you can avoid resort fees before you book instead of arguing about them after you check in.

A resort fee, also called a destination fee, a facility fee, or an amenity fee, is a mandatory daily charge added on top of the room rate. It is charged per room per night, not per person, so a family of four in one room pays the same nightly fee as a solo traveler in that room. The hotel usually says the fee covers Wi-Fi, the pool, the gym, and local calls. You pay it whether your kids use the pool every day or never get in the water at all.

How much a resort fee really costs a family

Typical fees run $25 to $55 per night at many properties that charge one. On the Las Vegas Strip, most major hotels charge $45 to $55 per night before tax, and with about 13.38 percent tax that $55 fee becomes about $62 per night. A five night stay at $45 a night is $225 before tax. A five night stay at $55 a night on the Strip is $275 before tax, or about $312 with that local tax rate applied.

Averages vary because samples vary, so treat any single average as a guide, not a quote for your hotel. One 2026 writeup puts the United States average at about $42 per night. A NerdWallet sample from 2026 found an average of $33 per night, but only among the hotels in its sample that charged a fee at all. Luxury properties can run far higher, past $100 per night at some resorts. The only number that matters for your trip is the fee at your hotel on your dates, and the table below shows why the program matters first.

Which programs waive the fee on award stays

This is the heart of the article, and it is also where families lose the most money by guessing. Hyatt and Hilton waive the fee on qualifying all points stays. Marriott and IHG do not. Wyndham sits in between, with a written waiver that some properties do not always honor.

Program	Resort fee on a stay paid entirely with points	What to watch
World of Hyatt	Waived	Book entirely with points or a free night certificate. See the Points + Cash note below.
Hilton Honors	Waived	Book entirely with points or a promotional free night stay. Partial points stays may still incur the fee.
Wyndham Rewards	Included in a Go Free night, except at Caesars properties	Some properties still try to charge it. Keep the program terms handy.
Marriott Bonvoy	Charged	Status does not waive it. Budget the fee in cash on top of your points.
IHG One Rewards	Charged	Status does not waive it. Budget the fee in cash on top of your points.

Hyatt: waived for every member on award stays

World of Hyatt does not charge resort or destination fees on award stays booked with points or free night awards, and that waiver applies to every member, not only to elite members. Top tier Globalist members also get resort fees waived on eligible paid stays, which is the one broad paid stay waiver in this group. That combination is why Hyatt is often the best points choice for a resort stay, even before you compare point prices.

One gap we could not verify cleanly, so we will not gloss over it. Sources disagree on Hyatt Points + Cash awards. Some guides describe Points + Cash as treated like a paid night, with the fee not waived except for Globalist members. Another source describes award fee waivers more broadly. Until Hyatt publishes one clear line, book entirely with points if avoiding the fee is the goal, and read the final price screen on any Points + Cash booking.

Hilton: waived on all points stays, not on partial points stays

Hilton Honors states the rule plainly in its terms: no resort fees on reward stays booked using all points, or for promotional free night stays. That waiver applies regardless of elite status. The catch is the word all. A stay that mixes points and cash is a different booking type, and reports from Hilton guests show the fee disappearing only when the stay is paid fully with points. If you are short on points, topping up your balance before booking can be worth more than the points themselves, because it can move you from a fee paying stay to a fee free stay.

Wyndham: waived on paper, with two exceptions to know

Wyndham Rewards terms say a free night at a participating hotel covers the room rate for a standard room, including local taxes and resort or facility fees, not counting incidental charges. That is a real written waiver. Two exceptions matter for families. First, resort fees apply at participating Caesars Rewards properties even for Go Free nights, and cannot be paid with points, so a Las Vegas stay booked through Wyndham at a Caesars property will not dodge the Strip fee this way. Second, AwardWallet notes that not every Wyndham property knows the policy, so if a fee appears on your folio, show the terms at the desk and ask for it to be removed, or contact Wyndham customer service.

Marriott and IHG: budget the fee, every time

Marriott Bonvoy does not waive resort or destination fees on award stays, and elite status does not change that. Marriott terms say a free night award includes applicable taxes, but the member may be responsible for additional mandatory resort fees where they apply. IHG One Rewards is the same story: resort fees or service charges may apply, are paid directly to the hotel before check out, and no status tier waives them on award stays or paid stays. That does not make Marriott or IHG bad redemptions. It means a Marriott or IHG award night is not truly free at a resort property, and your comparison has to add the nightly fee in cash before you decide it beats a Hyatt or Hilton stay.

One narrow Marriott exception is worth a footnote. At eligible all inclusive properties, the award package has been reported to include the resort fee for up to two people, with extra guests costing more. Treat that as a property specific check, not a chain wide waiver, and confirm it on your booking before you rely on it.

The price rule that changed what you see before you book

The fee itself was not banned. The hiding of it was the target. The Federal Trade Commission Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees took effect on May 12, 2025. It requires hotels and booking sites to show the total price, including all mandatory fees, clearly and more prominently than any base rate, before you pay. Government taxes can still appear later in the flow, and optional extras you choose yourself are separate. A hotel can still charge a $50 destination fee for very little in return, as long as that $50 is inside the headline price you see first.

California moved earlier. The state Honest Pricing Law, SB 478, took effect on July 1, 2024, and requires advertised prices to include all mandatory fees, with government taxes as the main exception. In practice, that means a California hotel cannot advertise $199 and add a $45 resort fee at a later step. The national FTC rule now sets a similar standard across the United States, and major booking sites updated their displays in early 2025 to comply.

What this means for your booking habit is simple. The total price is now much easier to find, but you still have to look for it. A site that shows a nightly rate without a total for the stay has not finished the job, and a cash rate that looks cheaper than a points stay may stop looking cheaper once the fee and tax are added.

How to spot the total price before you book

We run these four checks before we lock any family hotel stay, points or cash.

1. Compare the total for the whole stay, not the nightly headline. Add the resort fee for every night, then tax on the fee where the hotel applies it.
2. Click through to the final price screen on the exact room type you plan to book. A standard room award and a premium room award can carry different fee treatment, and a cash night attached to an award stay can break a waiver.
3. Search the hotel page for the words resort, destination, facility, amenity, and urban. Hotels use all of these names for the same kind of mandatory charge, and a fee by another name still counts.
4. Screenshot the final price screen for an award stay that claims a waiver. If a waived fee reappears on your folio, that screenshot plus the program terms is the fastest way to get it removed.

Book direct when you can. A third party site now has to show the total price too, but program waivers and status benefits are cleaner to enforce on a direct booking, and the hotel desk can see your loyalty booking type without a middleman in the way.

Offset plays when you cannot avoid the fee

Sometimes the right hotel still charges the fee, and the play shifts from avoiding it to offsetting it with a card credit. Be precise here, because these credits offset a prepaid stay total. They do not waive a resort fee that a hotel charges at the property on an award stay.

The American Express Platinum card offers up to $600 in lodging statement credits per calendar year, paid as up to $300 twice a year, on prepaid Fine Hotels + Resorts or The Hotel Collection bookings through American Express Travel. The Hotel Collection requires a minimum two night stay, and from January 1, 2027, Fine Hotels + Resorts bookings will also require a minimum two night stay to qualify. A Fine Hotels + Resorts stay can also carry a $100 property credit, which helps with on property spending but is not a resort fee waiver.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve offers a $300 annual travel credit, applied automatically to travel purchases, which resets on your account anniversary year rather than on January 1. It also offers up to $250 per prepaid booking through The Edit by Chase Travel, up to $500 per calendar year, with a two night minimum. The Edit also carries a $100 property credit per booking. One more Reserve credit needs a warning label. A 2026 only credit of up to $250 on prepaid two night stays at select Chase Travel hotels, including IHG, Montage, Pendry, Omni, Virgin, Minor, and Pan Pacific, was still listed by trackers in October 2026, but an October 26, 2026 check found it no longer shown on Chase public card pages. Check your own account for that credit before you count on it, and note that it ends December 31, 2026 either way.

For a family, the honest math on a paid resort stay looks like this. A $250 Edit credit covers about five nights of a $50 resort fee, before tax. A $300 Amex lodging credit covers six nights at $50. Neither credit makes a fee free stay, but either one can turn a fee heavy hotel from a bad deal into a fair one, as long as the prepaid rate itself is competitive.

What does not work

Arguing at the desk rarely removes a mandatory fee that the program terms say you owe, and it never helps to start that conversation after you have already stayed. Booking through a discount site does not remove the fee either, since the hotel collects it at the property no matter how you booked. Elite status alone does not waive the fee except for Hyatt Globalist members on eligible paid stays, and a credit card annual fee does not waive it by itself. Picking a hotel with no resort fee in the first place beats every workaround, and plenty of midscale hotels, including many Hampton Inn, Courtyard, and Hilton Garden Inn style properties, simply do not charge one.

A family booking checklist

Start with the program, not the property. If you have Hyatt or Hilton points, price those hotels first for a resort stay, because the waiver alone can save $175 to $385 on a week. If you are set on Marriott or IHG, add the fee to the points cost and compare that total against a Hyatt or Hilton stay and against a straight cash rate. Check the total price screen, screenshot it, and keep the program terms for a Wyndham stay in your phone. On a paid stay, use a card credit only where the prepaid booking qualifies, and never assume a credit covers a fee charged later at the hotel.

Resort fees reward the traveler who reads the total. They punish the traveler who stops at the headline rate. For families, where a week long stay multiplies every nightly charge by five or seven, that one habit is worth hundreds of dollars a trip.