Also, it's unfair to characterize it as a scam if it's printed clearly in the costs. It's your responsibility to read what you're paying for.
It isn't, which is why I posted the video showing that.
On the screen you can very clearly see:
Room (1 Night): $180
Taxes & Fees: $32
Total: $221
In other words, they're purposely trying to hide the fact that the page is scrollable or that there is more content (the fine print) after the fold, and are trying to lead the buyer to believe that they already have the full pricing information before hitting the Pay button.
If the fine print that included the resort fee was above the Payment button then that would be one thing, but it's purposely designed so that you can't even see that the fine print even exists.
Anyway, the UI is different now and in big type it says "Due Now" with the resort fee mentioned under that. I personally didn't find it confusing before, but it's now quite clear.
This isn't a difficult concept.
But hotels don't charge you a parking fee if you don't park there. Whereas they won't let you check into the hotel unless you pay the "resort fee".
Again I have no problem with hotels charging part of the price upon check in, but it's super unethical for Hotel Tonight to:
A) advertise hotels based on prices you can't actually get a room for
B) do everything possible to hide the fact that the hotel won't actually let you check in without paying an additional fee (sometimes hundreds of dollars) until you've already made a large non-refundable payment
C) lie to people's credit card companies when they dispute the charges
This isn't a legitimate business, it's a criminal enterprise.