One number. When a creator says what a night costs in a video for a hotel or a vacation rental in the United States, the Federal Trade Commission's rule on unfair or deceptive fees requires that number to be the total price, inclusive of all mandatory fees, and to be displayed more prominently than most other pricing information. The FTC announced the rule in December 2024 for two industries, live-event ticketing and short-term lodging, described it as a rule to prohibit bait-and-switch pricing and other tactics used to hide total prices and bury junk fees, and set it to take effect 120 days after its publication in the Federal Register. A creator who says "from $149 a night" over a shot of a pool, when the resort fee and the cleaning fee take the real price past $220, has put the wrong number in the most prominent place in the ad.
The hospitality market itself, on-site days, comped stays, venues that clear the shoot, is the subject of the Las Vegas and Nashville guides in this cocoon. What follows is the one rule that changed what a hospitality creator video may say about money, and the disclosure that governs the comped stay behind so many of them.
The total price rule
What the rule requires
The FTC's announcement describes three requirements. Businesses must clearly and conspicuously disclose the true total price inclusive of all mandatory fees whenever they offer, display or advertise any price of live-event tickets or short-term lodging. They cannot misrepresent any fee or charge in any offer, display or ad. And they must display the total price more prominently than most other pricing information, which the FTC glosses as: the most prominent price in an ad needs to be the all-in total, and truthful itemization is fine as long as it does not overshadow the real total. Businesses that exclude allowable fees up front, the FTC's examples are shipping and taxes, have to clearly and conspicuously disclose the nature, purpose, identity and amount of those fees before the consumer consents to pay.
Why a creator video is an ad for a price
The rule reaches any offer, display or advertisement of a price for short-term lodging. A creator video that says a nightly rate, shows one on screen, or reads a promotional price from the brand's brief is advertising a price, and the brand that commissioned it is the business the rule addresses. Whereas a print ad's price is written by the revenue team, a creator's price is often improvised from the booking page the creator looked at that morning, before the fees were added. The brief has to supply the number, and the number has to be the total.
What the rule does not do
The rule does not cap fees, forbid them, or decide what a night should cost; it decides what the advertised number has to include. The FTC's announcement also notes that industries beyond ticketing and lodging remain subject to the general prohibition on deceptive pricing, enforced case by case, which means a tour operator, a restaurant or a spa in the same video is not under the lodging rule but is under the ordinary rule against misleading fees. And this guide does not state the rule's effective date or its subsequent history: the announcement says 120 days after publication, and a brand should read the current text before it briefs a price.
| What the creator says | What the rule makes of it | What the brief supplies |
|---|---|---|
| "From $149 a night" with mandatory fees excluded | A price that is not the total, in the most prominent place | The all-in nightly total, and the same number on screen |
| "$220 a night, taxes extra" | A total with an allowable exclusion named in the ad; the disclosure of that exclusion's nature, purpose, identity and amount is due before the consumer enters their payment information, the checkout's job rather than the video's | The exclusion named next to the price, and a checkout that discloses it |
| "No hidden fees" | A claim about fees that has to be true of the checkout | Verification that nothing mandatory appears later |
| A screenshot of a rate on a booking site | A displayed price | The total the site actually charges, not the headline rate |
Tickets and events, the other half of the rule
The rule covers live-event ticketing in the same words as lodging, and hospitality creators meet it often: a show, a festival, a concert, a ticketed pool party; what counts as a live event is a question of the rule's text, which this guide does not state. A creator who says "tickets are $40" for an event whose service fee and facility fee take the real price past $55 has advertised a price that is not the total, and a venue or a promoter that briefed the number is the business the rule addresses. The Las Vegas guide describes the convention and show economy from the creator's side; on the money, the same three requirements apply, the total price inclusive of mandatory fees, no misrepresented fee, and the total displayed more prominently than most other pricing information, so a brief for an event video supplies the all-in ticket price and nothing else.
The comped stay, and the disclosure that goes with it
Much hospitality creator content begins with a free room, a free meal or a free ticket. The Federal Trade Commission's influencer guidance treats a free stay or perk received so that the creator will post about it as a material connection, asks for the disclosure to be clear, placed with the endorsement and hard to miss, and, for a video, in the video itself and not only in the description. It adds that the disclosure is due even when the brand never asked for a mention: a comp is a connection whether or not a post was requested. The Las Vegas guide describes the commercial side, comped rooms, meals and tickets as the ordinary currency of the market; the compliance side is that the comp is disclosed on every video it produced, including the one filmed on the last morning.
What the video says about the room
The rest of a hospitality video is claims about the place, and they fall under the ordinary standard: the view, the distance to the beach, the amenities, what is included. Each has to be true of the room the viewer will get, not only of the suite the creator was given. A brand that upgrades the creator to the best room in the house and lets the video imply that every guest gets it has made a claim about a typical experience that the standard room does not support. The honest brief names the room category on screen, or films the room the price refers to.
The brief, line by line
- Supply the price the creator may say, as the all-in total for the room category shown, and forbid any other number.
- If an allowable fee is excluded, the FTC's examples being shipping and taxes, name the exclusion in the script next to the price, and check that the checkout discloses its nature, purpose, identity and amount before the payment step, which is where the rule places that disclosure.
- Name the room category on screen when the creator's room is not the one the price refers to.
- Write the disclosure of the comp into the brief and check it in every video, the FTC's guidance applying whether or not a post was requested.
- Have the revenue team, not only marketing, watch the final cut: it is the team that knows what the checkout actually charges.
Sources
- Federal Trade Commission, Federal Trade Commission Announces Bipartisan Rule Banning Junk Ticket and Hotel Fees (December 17, 2024)
- Federal Trade Commission, Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers
Checked on 20 September 2026. This guide is not legal advice. Where this guide and the official source disagree, the official source prevails.
