The price you see is not the bill: the same villa at $972 or $1,161

The villa was the same, so was the night, and so were the sellers. All that changed was where I searched from. In the United States and Canada, Google shows the night before tax; almost everywhere else it shows it with tax and service in. Someone searching from New York sees a lower figure and finds it higher when they pay.

So I took the guide’s hotels that have a price page and did the same thing for each: from the figure you see on Google to the bill you pay, line by line. There are three surprises, and one of them matters more to hotels than to travellers.

At The Venetian in Las Vegas, Google shows $307 for a suite. The $55 resort fee is already in it, because US law has required that since 2025. The tax is not: the county’s 13.38% comes afterwards, on the suite and the resort fee together, and at checkout you pay $348.

In New York there is a flat charge per night on top of the percentage. And at Blackberry Farm in Tennessee a compulsory 20% service charge comes on top of the tax: the night grows by a third.

I would add the tax before choosing, not at checkout. Between two hotels in the same city it does not change the order, because the rate is the same; between Las Vegas, New York and a resort with a service charge, it does.

At the Conrad Maldives a Beach Villa costs $1,180 a night for 2, and here the figure already has service, tax and the green tax in it. Then comes the part no price shows: the seaplane, $700 per adult return. For a single night for 2, the trip costs more than the villa.

On an island I would stay longer. At the Conrad, over 4 nights, the seaplane weighs $350 a night instead of $1,400.

This part is for hotels. Outside America, someone searching on Google usually sees the whole night, tax and service in. Then they open the hotel’s own site and find the rate on its own, which looks lower. They choose, carry on, and service, tax and fees arrive as lines on top of the rate: at the 13 hotels I looked at in Asia, the Gulf and the Caribbean they add 17% to 61%. I think that is where a hotel loses trust, on its own website.

Other hotels do the opposite, and I think they win. Beaches Turks & Caicos puts gratuities, tax and service inside the price. The €780 at Cavo Tagoo on Mykonos include breakfast, VAT, the city tax and the climate tax. ICEHOTEL asks one amount per room, with no lines added, and Amanjiwo prices its pavilions with tax and fees in, on its rooms page and in its booking engine.

If I had a hotel, I would put the whole night on the first screen of the site, with one line saying what it includes. It costs a line of text, and the hotel reaches the comparison with the same figure the traveller has just seen on Google.

The resort fee of 60 Las Vegas hotels, one by one, is in Las Vegas resort fees. Every price by city and by hotel is on the hotel prices page.