It depends entirely on which program’s points you’re spending — and the split is sharp enough that it should influence where you put your loyalty in the first place.
Hyatt and Hilton waive resort fees on award stays. Marriott and IHG don’t.
That single sentence is worth more than most points-strategy advice, because resort fees are the largest silent erosion of hotel point value there is.
The breakdown
| Program | Resort fee on a points booking |
|---|---|
| World of Hyatt | Waived, all members, on award stays |
| Hilton Honors | Waived on stays booked entirely with points or a free night certificate |
| Wyndham Rewards | Generally waived on full-points “Go Free” awards, though implementation is inconsistent |
| Choice Privileges | Waived on some award stays |
| Marriott Bonvoy | Charged. Elite status does not help |
| IHG One Rewards | Charged. No status workaround |
Hyatt goes further than the rest: Globalist members get resort fees waived on paid stays too, not just awards.
Why this is worth more than it sounds
The typical US resort fee runs $20 to $50 a night, with an average around $42. On a five-night award stay at a fee-charging property, that’s roughly $200 out of pocket on a vacation you booked as free.
And the fee has migrated off the beach. Hotels in New York, San Francisco and Chicago now routinely charge $30–$50 a night as a “destination fee,” “amenity fee,” “facility charge,” or “urban experience fee.” These are treated identically to resort fees by every program listed above. Being in a city center is no protection.
What it does to your redemption math
Fold the fee into your cents-per-point calculation or you’ll systematically overestimate your redemptions.
A Marriott award at 50,000 points a night, against a $400 cash rate, looks like 0.8 cents per point — right at the program’s typical valuation. Add a $50 resort fee that you pay either way but that reduces the cash you actually avoid spending, and the real figure is:
($400 − $50) ÷ 50,000 = 0.7 cents per point
That’s a 12.5% haircut, and it lands on a currency that was already the weakest of the major hotel programs.
Now run the same stay through Hyatt at a property charging the same fee. The fee disappears entirely on the award side, so the full cash cost — rate, tax, and fee — is what your points are offsetting. The gap between the two programs at a fee-heavy property is much wider than their headline point valuations suggest.
The FTC rule changed disclosure, not the fees
In December 2024 the Federal Trade Commission finalized its Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees (16 CFR Part 464), which took effect May 12, 2025. It requires short-term lodging providers and live-event ticket sellers to display the total price, inclusive of mandatory fees, clearly and more prominently than any other pricing figure — before checkout. Civil penalties run to roughly $51,744 per violation.
This is a real improvement. It is also frequently misunderstood.
The rule does not ban resort fees. It requires that they be disclosed up front. Hotels remain free to charge whatever they like as long as the total is shown honestly. As one industry attorney put it, the FTC set a national floor; it did not preempt state law or eliminate the practice.
More importantly for points travelers: the all-in pricing that now shows on cash searches doesn’t always carry cleanly into award booking flows. Marriott began folding resort and destination fees into advertised cash rates following a settlement over hidden fees — genuine progress — but on award bookings the fee can still sit several screens deep in the reservation path. The travelers most likely to be surprised are precisely the ones redeeming points and assuming the stay is fully covered.
The loophole that shouldn’t exist
A recent case illustrates how far this can go. Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, a Marriott Autograph Collection property in Hawaii, introduced a $60-per-night resort fee for stays from August 1, 2026. The property had historically distinguished itself by charging no resort fee at all.
The twist: the hotel waives the fee for guests paying cash. Hotels generally aren’t permitted to apply a resort fee only to award bookings, for obvious reasons — but waiving it for cash guests produces the same result through the back door. The fee lands almost exclusively on people redeeming points.
Whether this survives scrutiny is an open question. That it happened at all is a useful reminder that “award stay” and “free stay” are not synonyms at Marriott.
How to keep the fee off your bill
Choose the program for the destination. For Hawaii, Las Vegas, the Caribbean, and any resort-heavy market, redeem Hilton or Hyatt points. This is the single most effective lever.
Choose a brand that doesn’t charge. Resort fees are concentrated in resort and full-service urban properties. Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, Courtyard, Residence Inn and Homewood Suites overwhelmingly don’t charge them. If you’re deciding between two comparable hotels and one carries a $45 nightly fee, that fee is real money — include it in the comparison.
Use status where it applies. Hyatt Globalist waives fees on all stays. MGM Rewards Gold and above waives resort fees at MGM properties in Las Vegas. Caesars Diamond does the same across Caesars properties. Some credit cards confer these tiers automatically.
Ask. Call the property directly — the front desk, not the central reservations line — and ask politely whether the fee can be reduced or waived. This works more often than people expect, particularly on longer stays and at properties where the amenities the fee supposedly covers are closed or under renovation.
Dispute non-disclosure. If the fee was never properly disclosed before you booked, you have a stronger position than you did two years ago. Document the booking flow and take it up with the property first, then your card issuer.
The check that takes ten seconds
Before confirming any award booking with Marriott or IHG, open the final price summary and look specifically for a separate resort or destination fee line. Not the nightly rate. Not the points total. The itemized breakdown.
If you’re redeeming Hilton or Hyatt points, you can skip that step — which is, in the end, the whole argument for where to concentrate your hotel loyalty.