Thursday, July 26, 2012

Expedia, Others Sued By Hawaii Over Room Taxes

The State of Hawaii is seeking more than $302M from Bellevue-based Expedia, for failing to pay their share of the state's hotel room tax, according to Hawaii News Now. The online travel site is one of a number of companies being sued to recover more than $500M for the state. Travelocity is also being sued, for $72M, Orbitz is being sued for $48M, and Priceline.com is being sued for $30M in the move. The lawsuits look to be similar to one Expedia has been fighting in Florida, over the same issues. Expedia and other firms have been arguing in court that they are not subject to paying hotel room taxes, since they are not operating or owning hotels, just helping those hotels to book rooms; the dispute comes over the sometimes higher prices that show up on travel sites, a portion of which goes to the online travel firms but does not officially show up in tax calculations at the hotels.