NYC Mayor Says He Is Banning Hotel Junk Fees Everywhere, Not Just In The City — What The New Rule Really Does


New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a new rule on Wednesday. It’s being reported that,

  • “Hotel resort fees, surprise deposits and other so-called junk fees for lodgings are being banned in New York City,”
  • It’s “a rule that applies everywhere, not just within city borders.”

Mamdani said,

I speak of the hidden fees that plague New Yorkers’ lives anytime they have the audacity to book a hotel room, not only when they’re in our city, but when they’re booking that room from here for wherever they’re traveling around the country.

Some hotels have fees to use the bathroom mirror, for streaming your own content on the in-room tv, an add-on to use the elevator and extra charges for paying with the hotel chain’s own credit card. Monsieur Thénardier would be proud!

While Mamdani’s administration sort of has the authority to do this, without legislation from the City Council even, this is not what is happening.

Instead, this is an all-in total price disclosure rule for hotel stays, plus mandatory disclosure of incidental holds and deposits, enforced as a deceptive trade practice under New York City’s consumer protection authority. Mamdani is simply saying that they consider this a deceptive practice. And it is still a proposed rule, not something that has gone into effect.

The City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection would make it a deceptive trade practice to offer, display, or advertise a hotel price without clearly and conspicuously disclosing the total price inclusive of mandatory fees (government taxes may be excluded). It also requires disclosure of:

  • the purpose and amount of any fee excluded from the advertised total price and what it’s for
  • the final amount the consumer must pay (as prominent as, or more prominent than, the total price), and
  • any credit or debit card hold or deposit, and the amount, reason it is kept, and when it must be refunded.

Here’s a Hilton, a Marriott, and an IHG property making up government fees, the first two are fees requiring the guest to pay the hotel’s property taxes while the latter is simply made up out of whole cloth. Misrepresenting the purpose of a fee will be banned!

Notably, this rule applies to all New York City hotels and for New York residents staying anywhere. The agency says they can fine anyone advertising a stay in a hotel to a New York City consumer. New York claims extraterritorial jurisdiction, including over online travel agencies and out of state hotels.

This has been in process long before the Mayor was elected. In fact, comments on it closed September 22, 2025. So isn’t even fair that it’s being attributed to him.

Furthermore, it might sound very familiar. It is basically the same rule that the federal government finalized a year ago, with added local fines and the addition of a hold and deposit disclosure requirement. That one item aside, any hotel or travel agency complying with federal rules also meets the New York City rules.

However, New York can generate additional revenue for violations (and might enforce when the FTC will not). They’ve proposed penalties of $525 for a first offense, $1,050 for a second offense, and $3,500 for third and subsequent offenses.

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NYC Mayor Says He Is Banning Hotel Junk Fees Everywhere, Not Just In The City — What The New Rule Really Does

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