Online passport renewal

Renewing your U.S. passport just got a lot easier. The State Department reopened its online renewal portal on June 12, unveiling a beta program to speed up processing for travelers who meet certain criteria. This isn't a full launch, so officials will only take a select number of applicants each day starting at noon Central time. Travelers can still renew by mail.

To be eligible to renew online, you must be a U.S. citizen and resident age 25 and older, and have already had a passport with 10-year validity, issued within the past nine to 15 years and not lost, stolen or damaged. You must not be planning to travel internationally for at least eight weeks. You must pay with a credit card, debit card or an ACH payment and upload your passport photo in a JPEG file. There's no timetable for when the beta rollout could become a permanent option.

TravelPulse

Hotel, Airbnb price spike

If you're making travel plans to California for summer or fall, brace yourself for a jump in some advertised prices — which is, believe it or not, good news for consumers. It's the result of a new California law aimed at bringing transparency to the resort fees, service fees, host fees and other "drip pricing" that often inflates consumer's bills beyond the rates first advertised, especially at lodgings and restaurants. Under the California law, which takes effect July 1, businesses selling their wares in California now must include mandatory fees in their initial advertised prices. "The price you see is the price you pay," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said. At a consumer's first glance online, it may seem the new rules have pushed the cost of a $149 room up by $20 to $50 per night. In fact, the hoteliers are just disclosing all pretax fees upfront, as required — a change that may allow consumers to make better cost comparisons.

Los Angeles Times

'White Lotus' bump

Now that the fictional guests of Season 3 of "The White Lotus" have checked out, Thailand is gearing up for the real tourists to arrive. The first two seasons of the show (a satirical look at the privileged lives of its wealthy guests and the employees of the eponymous luxury hotel), were filmed at Four Seasons properties in Maui, Hawaii, and Taormina, Sicily. Fans turned those real-life resorts and cities into bucket-list destinations, spurring an avalanche of real-life visitors. "We're waiting for Thailand to go crazy because everyone knows as soon as 'White Lotus' comes out, you won't be able to get in," says Misty Belles, spokeswoman for Virtuoso, a consortium for some 20,000 luxury advisers. Guests are specifically requesting to book at the properties featured in Season 3: Four Seasons Koh Samui, where an ocean-view villa can cost about $1,700 a night, and the Anantara Mai Khao, where pool villas will set you back about $400.

Bloomberg News

Short-term rental ban

Barcelona plans to ban all short-term home rentals for tourists by 2029, as the Spanish city's mayor tries to control surging rent costs for locals in the popular travel destination. The Mediterranean city will stop giving new licenses and won't renew existing ones so that by 2029, no homes will have permission to be rented as tourist accommodations. Currently, about 10,000 houses are registered as rentals for tourists. "More supply of housing is needed, and the measures we're presenting today are to provide more supply so that the working middle class does not have to leave the city because they can't afford housing." said Mayor Jaume Collboni. "This measure will not change the situation from one day to the next. These problems take time. But with this measure we are marking a turning point."

Bloomberg