Online travel giant Booking.com has agreed to settle a ‘junk fee’ lawsuit brought by the state of Texas.
The company will pay $9.5 million over allegedly misleading customers on resort fees.
The Texas Attorney General’s office accused the company of willfully omitting resort fees and other amenity fees from the online booking process.
These were mandatory fees payable by the guest.
The lawsuit accused the company of ‘drip pricing.’
In these cases, guests were hit with the extra charges at checkout.
Under the settlement terms, Booking.com will disclose all mandatory fees upfront.
The Texas AG has cracked down on hotel chains such as Hilton, and Marriott in the past few years over the same issue for direct bookings.
