Business

Rosemont sues online hotel sites over local tax

Posted July 23, 2009 11:00 pm

The village of Rosemont is suing a number of companies that sell hotel rooms at reduced price online, claiming they fail to pay the village all of the hotel tax they should.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Chicago on Thursday, alleges that the companies buy hotel rentals at a wholesale rate and then resell them at a higher retail price, charging the hotel tax based on the higher rate.

But, the village contends, it only receives a portion of the tax taken in, based on the wholesale price and paid by the hotel. The companies, the suit claims, charge the regular hotel tax rate to their customers and then keep that money.

The companies named in the suit are Priceline.com Inc., Travelweb LLC, Travelocity.com LP, Site59.com LLC, Expedia Inc., Hotels.com LP, and Hotwire Inc.

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