The Parking Fee Is Part of the Guest Review. Treat It That Way.
Parking can represent up to 20% of a hotel property's total revenue. That makes it one of the most consequential ancillary line items in hospitality — and in 2026, one of the most legally and reputationally exposed.
Frommer's documented the trend with the specificity that only years of guidebook research produces: a hotel that charged $15 for parking two years ago now charges $24 — a 60% markup. Another doubled its rate from $10 to $20 over the same period, having offered it free just a few years before. Resort fees at properties surveyed for the 2026 Orlando guidebook jumped at least 11% in two years, against a U.S. inflation rate of 2.7%. The math isn't subtle. And guests are doing it.
The regulatory environment has caught up with the behavior. The FTC's Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees took effect in May 2025, requiring upfront all-in pricing for hotels and short-term lodging. New York City implemented its own junk fee ban in February 2026. California and Minnesota passed similar disclosure laws. And Marriott is currently facing a class action lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court, with plaintiffs alleging that undisclosed surcharges violate California's consumer protection and unfair competition laws.
The industry's era of burying parking fees in the fine print is over. What replaces it is a choice.
The Difference Between a Fee and a Surprise
Hotels can still charge for parking. The regulatory shift doesn't prohibit the revenue — it requires that the revenue be disclosed upfront, clearly, before the guest commits. That's a meaningful distinction, and it's one that separates the properties playing defense from the ones building a competitive advantage.
A guest who knows the parking rate before they book isn't surprised at checkout. They made an informed decision. That's a fundamentally different relationship with the charge — and it shows up in the review, the return rate, and the referral behavior that drives occupancy more durably than any promotional rate.
The properties still revealing parking fees at the pay station, on the folio, or buried in the confirmation email are accumulating a compounding liability: guest frustration that feeds review platforms, regulatory scrutiny that is now actively enforced, and litigation risk that is no longer theoretical.
The pivot isn't complicated. It requires transparent pricing and a frictionless payment experience that integrates parking into the stay rather than treating it as a separate transaction the guest has to navigate on their own.
What Integration Actually Looks Like
FolioCharge® is the mechanism. Guests select their hotel, enter their room number and checkout date, and charge parking directly to their room folio — via CameraPay® or TextPay®, API-connected to PMS systems including Marriott and Hyatt. The parking charge appears on the folio the guest is already tracking, in the same place as room service and spa charges. Familiar. Expected. Fully disclosed.
No pay station. No separate transaction. No checkout confrontation over a charge that wasn't surfaced until the last moment. The parking fee is disclosed at booking, charged at use, and reflected on the folio — exactly where FTC compliance and guest experience converge.
GLIDEPARCS® Multi-Channel Payments — TextPay®, CameraPay®, the Premium Parking App, and plate-based credentialing — gives the property a full suite of payment options that meet guests wherever they are. Business travelers who prefer app-based payment. Leisure guests who want to scan a QR code and move on. International visitors who don't carry the right card format. Every channel is available, every transaction is transparently logged, and the property has a unified, auditable record of every parking revenue event.
GLIDE Eye LPR® closes the compliance loop — guests who pre-paid or charged to folio are credentialed automatically on arrival. No gate. No ticket. No attendant creating a bottleneck at 11pm when a flight lands late and the front desk is already managing a queue.
Revenue Doesn't Have to Come With Reputation Risk
The properties that are winning the fee conversation in 2026 aren't the ones charging less. They're the ones being transparent earlier — and delivering a parking experience that feels like a genuine part of the stay rather than a toll on the way in.
Premium Parking® is the partner that makes that transition operationally real. People + Platform + Places working together so that parking revenue is earned the right way — disclosed upfront, collected without friction, and reflected accurately on the folio the guest takes home.
People deserve great places. Great hotels don't let the parking fee undermine everything else they've built.
Get to Great.