Congress mandates upfront hotel pricing—no more hidden fees at checkout
S. 314 — Hotel Fees Transparency Act of 2025 · Filed by Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 29, 2025 · Reported out
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What it does
This bill requires hotels, short-term rentals, and online booking platforms to display the total price (base rate plus mandatory fees) clearly and prominently whenever they advertise a room, and to disclose all taxes and government fees before purchase. It treats violations as unfair trade practices enforceable by the FTC and state attorneys general, with a 450-day implementation window. The bill preempts state laws that require fee disclosure in different ways, but preserves state authority over fraud and contract law.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a straightforward prohibition on deceptive pricing practices in the hotel and short-term rental sector, enforced through FTC authority and state consumer protection actions. It is a consumer-protection measure, not a subsidy, carve-out, or industry giveaway.
What the text implies
- The affirmative defense for intermediaries (Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb) may create a loophole: if they claim to have 'established procedures' and relied in 'good faith' on hotel-supplied data, they can escape liability even if prices displayed to consumers are inaccurate, shifting enforcement burden to the hotel rather than the platform.
- Preemption language (Section 5) may invalidate stricter state fee-disclosure laws, potentially creating a federal floor below which states cannot go—a race-to-the-bottom risk if the FTC enforcement proves weak or slow.
- The 450-day implementation window gives covered entities substantial time to restructure pricing displays and systems, potentially allowing strategic delay in compliance.
- Definition of 'optional product or service' is broad and undefined by example—hotels may classify resort fees, parking, or facility charges as 'optional' to exclude them from the total price, undermining the transparency goal.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Ordinary consumers gain transparency and protection against bait-and-switch pricing tactics that hide mandatory fees until late in the booking process. The bill reduces information asymmetry and gives consumers the true cost upfront, enabling better purchasing decisions and reducing surprise charges at checkout.
Who stands to gain
- consumers (reduced surprise fees, better price comparison)
- smaller hotels and independent short-term rentals (may gain competitive advantage if large platforms
Named in the bill
Federal Trade Commission (FTC), State Attorneys General, Hotels, Short-term rentals (Airbnb, VRBO, etc.), Online travel agencies (Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com), Metasearch platforms (Google Hotels, Kayak, etc.), Third-party online sellers
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 2 Republicans, 1 Democrats.
- Jan 29, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jan 29, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation”
- Feb 5, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
17 lobbying clients named this bill on 29 disclosure filings across 3 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $10,380,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 4 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 96% of bills with at least one filing.
Amy Klobuchar, the sponsor, reported $116,500 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- AARP — $5,300,000 on 1 filing
- American Hotel & Lodging Association — $1,680,000 on 2 filings
- U.S. Travel Association — $800,000 on 1 filing
- Six Continents Hotels, Inc. — $560,000 on 2 filings
- Airbnb, Inc. — $480,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (12,033 characters) on Jun 10, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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