The short answer
Show the total the guest will actually pay, including tax and every mandatory fee, at the first moment you show a price. Add nothing at the last step except things the guest chose. Say what a from-price is from. State the deposit and the cancellation terms before the payment screen, not after it.
That is the whole answer. The rest of this is what it looks like in practice, and why the alternative is now a legal problem as well as a commercial one.
Why drip pricing costs more than it earns
Drip pricing works on the theory that a low headline number wins the click and the guest will not abandon once they have invested five minutes. In hospitality it fails twice. The guest who abandons at the total was the guest closest to paying, and the guest who does not abandon arrives feeling caught, which shows up in the review.
Meanwhile the marketplace listing beside you shows an inclusive total in the search results. Your low headline is not even competing on the number the guest is comparing.
What counts as mandatory
If the guest cannot avoid it, it is part of the price:
- Tax at whatever rate applies.
- Cleaning and changeover fees.
- Booking or service fees added by your engine.
- Resort or facility fees.
- Compulsory per-person charges on tours and sessions.
- Card surcharges, which are restricted in several markets and best removed entirely.
If the guest can genuinely decline it, it is an extra: the dog, the cot, breakfast where it is optional, equipment hire, the electric hook-up, the late checkout.
The rules, in outline
Most consumer regimes now require the total price, including unavoidable charges, to be displayed up front. The UK, the EU, Australia and Canada all take this line, and a growing number of US states have specific hotel and ticket fee rules. Enforcement has concentrated exactly where hospitality lives: accommodation, tickets and events.
This is orientation rather than legal advice, and the detail differs by market. The safe operating rule is the one above, because it satisfies the strictest version anywhere.
Saying it well on the page
£140 a night in August, two-night minimum, including cleaning, linen and tax. Dogs £15 a stay. Cot free. £50 deposit today, balance two weeks before arrival. Free cancellation up to seven days before.
Four sentences, all the money, no arithmetic. A campsite states the pitch type and the hook-up. A restaurant states whether service is added and what the private dining minimum spend is. A tour operator states the per-person rate, the child rate and the minimum group size.
From-prices without the trick
A from-price is honest when the page says what produces it and what the top of the range is. "From £95 midweek in November; £140 in August" tells the guest where they stand and costs you nothing. "From £95" over a calendar where £95 is available on four nights a year is the thing regulators and guests both dislike.
Keeping the site and the engine agreed
The engine takes the money, so it is the source of truth. Configure it to charge inclusively, then hold the site's prices as records with the same fields, so one edit updates every page. Once a month, book your own business on a phone and compare the number on the page with the number on the payment screen. If they differ, the page is what needs fixing.
Structured data
Where prices are marked up for search on room, tour or menu pages, use the inclusive figure. A search result carrying a net rate that grows on the site is the checkout surprise happening one step earlier and doing more damage.
The commercial argument, if the legal one is not enough
Businesses that move to inclusive pricing usually report fewer abandoned checkouts, fewer phone calls about what a price includes, and fewer complaints on arrival. The headline number goes up and the completed bookings go up with it, because the guest who reached the payment screen had already accepted the total.
Where this sits
Inclusive prices, honest from-prices and terms stated before checkout are how prices are presented on every hospitality business website we build, held as records so they stay correct as the seasons change. Guests forgive a high price. They do not forgive a moving one.