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Travel agencies forced to pay millions in back hotel taxes
The nation’s online travel agencies have run up a hefty tab at Texas hotels. And this week they agreed to pay up the $55 million they owe.
The payment is for back taxes that the agencies—including Travelocity, Expedia and hotels.com—owe to 173 cities in the Lone Star State, the Dallas Morning News reports.
A jury in 2009 found that the online agencies should have paid room taxes based on the prices that they charged their customers, and not on the wholesale prices they paid the hotel companies, as they had been doing.
The online companies have spent the past five years refusing to pay, though—until Tuesday, when they finally filed papers with a federal court in San Antonio agreeing to the taxes, penalties, and interest.
As of now, the city of Dallas alone stands to get $10 million. But Expedia already is planning to appeal, spokesperson Mallory Seubert told Travelmole.
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