On December 30, 2025, Texas Attorney General (AG) Ken Paxton announced a $1.25 million settlement with Hyatt Corporation (Hyatt). The settlement resolves a 2023 lawsuit alleging that Hyatt violated Texas consumer protection laws by requiring consumers to pay mandatory fees on top of advertised room rates. Under the agreement, Hyatt must clearly disclose any required fees added to a hotel room’s price, reinforcing Texas’s push for transparent online hotel pricing.
Paxton’s office sued Hyatt on May 15, 2023, alleging “false, misleading, and deceptive acts and practices” in violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA). Central to the complaint was the allegation that Hyatt’s website advertised one room rate for consumers searching for a room, but when consumers proceeded to check out, the price would increase due to the addition of mandatory fees, such as a resort fee. Paxton alleged that customers could only see the mandatory resort fee if they clicked a “Show Price Details” button at checkout, and even then they were disclosed in the “Taxes & Fees” section of the payment summary, thereby leading customers to believe that it was a government-imposed fee.
The lawsuit alleged that this practice marketed room prices that were never available. By only revealing mandatory fees when consumers checked out, Hyatt allegedly thwarted comparison shopping, misled consumers about the actual rates consumers would pay for a room, and gave Hyatt an unfair competitive advantage over hotels that fully disclosed prices, including any mandatory resort fees, up front.
Paxton’s complaint characterizes this practice as “bait advertising” and suggests that the nominal undisclosed charges add up for consumers. This lawsuit marked Paxton’s sixth settlement related to alleged deceptive pricing for online hotel reservations.
Why It Matters
This settlement resolves specific allegations related to Hyatt’s pricing practices and underscores Texas’s continued scrutiny of company pricing practices — especially in the hospitality industry. It is one of many sweeping the U.S. related to price transparency. The rise in “junk fee” enforcement is a trend occurring in Texas and in other states, and companies should proactively review their pricing practices to ensure compliance with state and federal law.
