All told, hotel-related junk fees cost travelers roughly $3 billion a year, according to Consumer Reports. For airlines, revenue from ancillary fees, which include carry-on luggage, seat assignments and early boarding, rose to $102.8 billion in 2022, up 56 percent from the previous year, according to IdeaWorks, a consulting firm for airlines.

That means the days of using search engines like Google, Expedia and others to rapidly search for travel deals are long gone. You might be able to get an idea of the approximate cost of a ticket or hotel room, but you have to put in a lot more time and effort to tally up the real cost.

“The hotels and airlines want to make it difficult for you to really compare what your flight or hotel stay will cost because they don’t like being purchased based just on price,” said Henry Harteveldt, the president of Atmosphere Research, a travel analysis firm in San Francisco.

Junk fees have become so widespread that regulators say the practice must soon change. The Federal Trade Commission, which began an investigation into the fees last year, said it planned to announce rules restricting businesses from charging them in the coming months.

But until new laws come into effect, it’s on us to watch for deceptive pricing tactics and sidestep them when possible. Here are some ideas for how to do that.