No Hidden Fees on Extra Expenses for Stays Act of 2023

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak in support of H.R. 6543, the No Hidden FEES Act.

Far too often, when consumers go to check out of their hotel rooms, they are hit with surprise fees. Hotels and online travel agencies have many names for these types of fees, such as resort fees, amenities fees, facilities fees, to name just a few. Regardless of what they are called, surprise fees that consumers do not expect make it impossible to comparison shop and impose undue burdens on household finances.

That is why I am proud that President Biden and House Democrats are working to prevent junk fees like these. H.R. 6543, the No Hidden FEES Act, is a bipartisan bill that will ensure that companies make available all mandatory fee information when they advertise a hotel room or other place of short-term lodging.

The bill would also require hotels and other providers of short-term lodging to provide the total cost of a room to any internet website or other third party that the provider has allowed to advertise, market, display, or otherwise offer the short-term lodging for sale.

By ensuring everyone in the short-term lodging ecosystem displays the full price of a stay, we will protect consumers from being caught paying extra when they go to check out. I commend my colleagues on the Energy and Commerce Committee, Representative Castor and Representative Kim, for their leadership on this issue.

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Mr. PALLONE. Castor), who is the ranking member of our Oversight and investigations Subcommittee and the Democratic sponsor of the bill.

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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, in closing, I urge all my colleagues to support this bipartisan bill. It is important that we get at junk fees, and this is one of those bills that comes out of our committee that will accomplish that goal.

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