Houston Hotel Resort Fees: Six Marriott Hotels Add $25 a Night, Most Others Add Nothing

By Matt Spaulding · November 5, 2026

Photo: Agsftw, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Of the 58 Houston hotels whose own booking screens we read, 15 printed a mandatory fee and 43 printed none. Seven of the 15 charge $25 a night: six Marriott-family hotels, which call it a Destination Fee, and one IHG hotel, which calls it an Amenity Fee. Each of the six Marriotts gives some or all of it back as a daily food and beverage credit if you eat at the hotel: the whole $25 at the Marriott Marquis, $13 or $15 at the other five. The other eight fees are three percentages under 1 percent of the stay and five flat charges. The smallest flat charge is $0.99 a night, plus tax, at the Hilton Houston Plaza/Medical Center. The largest is the $37.44 Amenity Fee on our one-night stay at Hotel ZaZa Museum District, and by our division that figure already has the 17 percent tax in it. ZaZa's screen added two more lines, for $54.02 in fees. Two other hotels on our site, the Royal Sonesta Houston Galleria and Quality Inn & Suites NRG Park - Medical Center, are in neither count because we couldn't read their screens. We'll read them again.

We read each hotel's own booking screen in Chrome, two adults in one room for a single night, and this page quotes no room rates. For nearly all of them the night was Tuesday 17 November 2026. We read those screens on 28 October. Three hotels had no regular room for the 17th (C. Baldwin had none at all), so for those we used another date, which we name where they come up. At three Midtown and Montrose hotels and one in Reliant Park, tax shows only after a room goes in the cart. On 4 November we added a room at each and read the cart, stopping before guest details. We went back to the six Marriott-family screens with the fee on 5 November, and all six still showed the same $25 line.

Houston's hotel tax is 17 percent: 6 percent state, 7 percent city, 2 percent Harris County and 2 percent Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, per Houston First's FAQ. A fee line here means a mandatory per-night or per-stay charge, apart from those taxes, that the hotel's own screen printed, whether it sat inside the price shown or was added to it. Marriott folds its destination fee into the rate and prints "Includes 25 USD Destination Fee" with it. Hilton's prices include the mandatory charge and exclude taxes and government charges. Only one of the six Hilton screens with a charge said what it was for. Hyatt prints a DESTINATION FEE paragraph when a hotel has one, and none of the six Hyatt screens here did.

Downtown and the Theater District: five of 22 screens printed a fee

Ten of the 22 are in our Downtown Houston area and 12 in the Theater District. Every rate at the Marriott Marquis Houston carries the line "Includes 25 USD Destination Fee". An information panel on the booking screen lists what it buys, though the Hotel Information block on the hotel's marriott.com overview page doesn't mention the fee. You get a daily $25 food and beverage credit, plus enhanced Wi-Fi and daily access for two guests to Altitude and its Texas-shaped lazy river. Xochi, one of the hotel's restaurants, doesn't take the credit. Gold members and above also get a daily pastry at the Texas T Coffee House. Marriott doesn't say on the screen whether tax is added to the fee.

The Laura Hotel, Houston Downtown, Autograph Collection prints the same $25 line with a different bundle: a $13 food and beverage credit, a day pass to the LifeTime fitness club next door, a guided tour of the downtown murals or the Houston tunnels led by Experience Houston, and enhanced Wi-Fi, all of them daily.

The Four Seasons Hotel Houston charges a $4.25 State Cost Recovery Fee per night, plus tax. Its screen says the fee offsets the property's State Franchise Tax, and each room type's nightly price carried the note "Includes Mandatory Fee (taxes calculated at checkout)". The Home2 Suites by Hilton Houston Downtown Convention Center printed a $2.53 mandatory charge per night. Its screen is the Hilton one that names the charge: a Texas Recovery Fee.

The other six downtown screens printed no fee: the Hilton Americas-Houston, the Embassy Suites by Hilton Houston Downtown Convention Center, the Hampton Inn Houston Downtown Convention Center, The Westin Houston Downtown, Le Méridien Houston Downtown and the Courtyard by Marriott Houston Downtown/Convention Center. Both Westins in the Galleria do print one.

In the Theater District only C. Baldwin, Curio Collection by Hilton printed a fee. Hilton had no rooms there for the 17th, so we read the 18th, and the screen showed a $22.65 mandatory charge per night.

The Hyatt Regency Houston Downtown, also in the Theater District, printed no fee on its screen. A search excerpt of its own policies page says otherwise. On 28 October the hyatt.com screen listed rooms and suites with no destination fee paragraph. The excerpt describes a $20.00 destination fee for bookings from 1 February 2026 and a $5.25 recovery fee. We couldn't open the page itself, because hyatt.com rendered blank in our browser on 5 November, so we can't settle it yet. We'll try the page again. The hotel is in the 43 because of what the screen printed, and we don't know that it charges no fee.

The Lancaster Hotel's rate details itemized the night as the room price plus 17 percent tax, and Club Quarters Hotel Downtown, Houston split its tax over three lines. Neither added a fee. Six Marriott screens in the district had none: the JW Marriott Houston Downtown, Magnolia Hotel Houston, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel, Moxy Houston Downtown, AC Hotel Houston Downtown, Aloft Houston Downtown and Hotel ICON, Autograph Collection. The downtown JW's namesake, the JW Marriott Houston by The Galleria, does charge one. Neither The Sam Houston Hotel, Tapestry Collection by Hilton nor Hyatt Place Houston/Downtown showed a fee line.

In the Galleria, every Marriott fee comes with a $15 credit

Three Marriott hotels in our Galleria and Uptown area print the $25 Destination Fee, and two of them print the same bundle. The Westin Galleria Houston and The Westin Oaks Houston at the Galleria both list a daily $15 food and beverage credit and enhanced Wi-Fi, plus passes for two guests per stay to the Museum of Illusions inside the Galleria and to Galleria Ice. Gold members and above get a bag of Houston Pecan Company mixed nuts. The JW Marriott by The Galleria lists a daily $15 food and beverage credit, and each day a shuttle within 2 miles of the hotel, a Galleria-area tour for two guests, an instructor-led wellness activity for two and enhanced Wi-Fi.

The DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel & Suites Houston by the Galleria printed a 0.70 percent mandatory charge per stay.

The Post Oak Hotel at Uptown Houston's rate details itemized only a 17 percent hotel tax. Five more Galleria-area screens showed no fee: the Hilton Houston Post Oak by the Galleria, Hyatt Regency Houston/Galleria, Hotel Vesper, Houston, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel, The Chifley Houston, Tapestry Collection by Hilton and Houston Marriott Uptown by the Galleria. The Hyatt Regency Galleria listed only a suite on 17 November, so we read 1 December, the first night it listed regular rooms. Neither date showed a fee.

We couldn't read the Royal Sonesta Houston Galleria. Sonesta's site ignored our dates and its room list never loaded, so we can't say whether it charges one.

Half the Medical Center and Museum District hotels add a fee

In the Texas Medical Center and the Museum District, the Houston Marriott Medical Center/Museum District prints the $25 Destination Fee. Its panel lists tickets to the Houston Museum of Natural Science for two guests per stay, a daily one-hour yoga session for two, a daily $15 food and beverage credit and enhanced Wi-Fi. Gold members and above get a round-trip Metro Rail ticket each day.

InterContinental Houston, at 6750 Main Street, is the one $25 charge that isn't Marriott's. IHG's line reads "Amenity Fee 25.00USD on rate, per night". The rate details itemize a 17 percent tax on the fee, which makes it $29.25 a night. Two $15 daily credits come with it, one for food and beverage and one for laundry, so if you'd use both they're worth $30 against the $29.25 you pay with tax. The fee also covers a shuttle that runs within 3 miles for medical patient guests and 2 miles for everyone else. The rate details list a $100 security deposit per night, too.

Two more Hilton screens here printed a percentage of the stay, not a nightly charge: 0.33 percent at the Blossom Hotel Houston, Curio Collection by Hilton and 0.43 percent at the Hampton Inn & Suites Houston Medical Center NRG Park.

Hotel ZaZa printed the most lines. Its 17 November screen showed an Amenity Fee of $37.44 and a State Recovery Fee of $3.55, then a Credit Card Processing Fee of $13.03, which works out to 2.25 percent of the bill.

Three Hilton screens here printed no charge: the DoubleTree by Hilton Houston Medical Center Hotel & Suites and two that share 6840 Almeda Road, the Hilton Garden Inn Houston Medical Center and the Home2 Suites by Hilton Houston Medical Center. The Westin Houston Medical Center/Museum District has no fee on its screen. Neither do the two Hyatts, Hyatt Place Houston/Medical Center and Hyatt House Houston/Medical Center.

No fee at any of the 14 we read in Reliant Park or Midtown and Montrose

The Wingate Houston near Reliant Park/Medical Center and the Wyndham Houston near NRG Park/Medical Center, two of the nine we read in Reliant Park, itemized tax on three lines each and nothing else. Marriott's three here, the Residence Inn by Marriott Houston Medical Center Reliant Park, SpringHill Suites by Marriott Houston Medical Center/NRG Park and the Courtyard by Marriott Houston Medical Center Reliant Park, printed no fee.

IHG's newer screen layout has no rate-details block, so at three IHG hotels we ticked "Includes taxes and fees" and compared prices. At the Holiday Inn Houston Reliant Park Area the four prices we compared each rose by 17 percent, within rounding, and nothing else. The Holiday Inn Express & Suites Houston S - Medical Ctr Area and Staybridge Suites Houston - Medical Center came out the same. Choice's rates page shows no fee breakdown before a room is added, so at the Comfort Suites Houston near Medical Center- NRG Stadium we added one on 4 November. The total was the rate plus 17 percent to the cent. We couldn't find a property code for Choice's Quality Inn & Suites NRG Park - Medical Center, so it's unread.

None of the five in Midtown and Montrose printed a fee. The cart at La Maison in Midtown, read on 4 November, added four tax lines totaling 17 percent. The Marlene Inn's cart added three, one of them a combined Harris County and Houston Sports Authority line. La Colombe d'Or Hotel offered only a suite, by phone, for the 17th, so we read the 18th, and its summary added state, city, county and Sports Authority tax and no fee. The Whitehall Houston itemized the same four taxes on its screen. Hotel Saint Augustine books through hyatt.com, and its screen showed no fee.

What the Texas Attorney General has said about hotel fees

On 24 May 2023 the Texas Attorney General's office sued Hilton Domestic Operating Company over mandatory hotel fees. Its release says Hilton charged nominal mandatory fees twice, first as a fee and then as a tax, and changed rates during checkout. It describes the suit as following one against Hyatt and a settlement with Marriott.

On 30 December 2025 the office announced a $1.25 million settlement with Hyatt whose terms require Hyatt to disclose any fees added to a room's price. That release calls it the office's sixth such settlement and lists earlier agreements with Marriott, Omni, Choice Hotels, Hilton and Booking.com. We didn't find a date or amount for the Hilton agreement on the office's site.

Where other fee lists disagree with the screens

Third-party listing pages say the Hilton Americas-Houston charges a $2.00 plus tax Downtown District Fee paid to Houston First Corporation, and they show similar $2 lines for the Embassy Suites downtown and The Sam Houston. On 28 October the hilton.com screens for all three printed no mandatory charge line. We found no Houston First or city page establishing such a fee, though that doesn't prove there isn't one.

Fee-checker and listing pages put the Westin Galleria's destination fee at about $29.25, which is $25 plus 17 percent. Marriott's screen shows $25 and doesn't say whether tax applies, so we can't call their figure wrong. The same pages list C. Baldwin at $23.40 against the $22.65 on its screen, and give Hotel ZaZa about $35.89, where the screen showed a $37.44 amenity fee and two more lines. Fees can change, so check the hotel's own screen for your dates before you book.