Watch Out for ‘Junk’ Fees When Booking Travel Online

Many of us are desperate to travel this summer after a pandemic stifled our plans for years. But travelers — and I’m sorry to be a killjoy — should beware: Those seemingly cheap plane tickets or hotel rooms advertised online may be a trap to make you spend more than anticipated.

That’s because hotels and airlines, struggling to recoup their losses from the pandemic, are increasingly resorting to nickel-and-diming consumers with hidden charges, according to studies and travel experts. Regulators call these “junk fees.”

You have probably encountered junk fees at least a few times in your travels. The extra charges can come in many forms, such as fees for resort amenities, checked luggage and seat selection, and they’re typically not disclosed upfront when you use an online search engine. They creep in toward the end of a transaction.

This strategy in the travel industry, known as “unbundling,” is not new. But some fees, such as baggage and seat selection on planes, crept up during the pandemic, according to studies. And vague hotel resort fees, which are typically a daily bulk charge of $20 to $50 for basic services like Wi-Fi and parking, have become commonplace.

All told, hotel-related junk fees cost travelers roughly $3 billion a year, according to Consumer Reports. For airlines, revenue from ancillary fees, which include carry-on luggage, seat assignments and early boarding, rose to $102.8 billion in 2022, up 56 percent from the previous year, according to IdeaWorks, a consulting firm for airlines.

That means the days of using search engines like Google, Expedia and others to rapidly search for travel deals are long gone. You might be able to get an idea of the approximate cost of a ticket or hotel room, but you have to put in a lot more time and effort to tally up the real cost.

“The hotels and airlines want to make it difficult for you to really compare what your flight or hotel stay will cost because they don’t like being purchased based just on price,” said Henry Harteveldt, the president of Atmosphere Research, a travel analysis firm in San Francisco.

Junk fees have become so widespread that regulators say the practice must soon change. The Federal Trade Commission, which began an investigation into the fees last year, said it planned to announce rules restricting businesses from charging them in the coming months.

But until new laws come into effect, it’s on us to watch for deceptive pricing tactics and sidestep them when…