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Expedia, Orbitz sued over taxes

Hotel Booking Orbitz, Expedia and 12 other online travel companies have been sued for failing to pay $30 million in room taxes that they collected on hotel bookings.

If you're bringing a lap baby on board, you can book your flights online through services such as Expedia and Orbitz, related requests.

Travel Agency The suit, filed February 9th in the Superior Court for the County of San Diego, claimed the companies paid the city's transient occupancy tax, a 10.5 percent charge levied on the price of a hotel room, based on the discounted rate they received, not what customers ultimately paid.

The tax charge on Expedia Special Rate hotel transactions is a recovery of all applicable transaction taxes (e.g. sales and use, occupancy, room tax, excise tax, value added tax, etc) that Expedia Travel pays to the vendors (e.g. hotels, etc.) in connection with your travel arrangements. Expedia Travel is not the vendor collecting and remitting said tax to the applicable tax authorities. The vendors bill all applicable taxes to Expedia Travel and Expedia Travel remits such tax directly to the vendor. vendor associated with the vendor with whom we book or reserve our customer's travel arrangements.

Cheap Hotel City Attorny. Michael Aguirre said the incongruity has cost the city $6 million annually in lost hotel tax revenues. According to the attorny, the problem began in 1999.

'Split Payment' On Holidays Launched For The First time Online Expedia.co.uk today becomes the first online travel agent to allow customers to split the payment on their holiday bookings in a move to give greater flexibility and choice for travellers and enabling people to travel at an affordable price. Customers booking an Expedia flight and hotel or flight, hotel and car package will be given an option to pay a deposit rather than having to find the full cost of the holiday at the time of booking, making it easier and more affordable than ever for people to let themselves go on holiday in 2006.

Flight Booking "They're charging the customer at the retail level and paying the city at wholesale level," Aguirre said. "The tax is levied based on occupancy. The fact that it goes through the medium of the Internet doesn't make any difference as to the appropriateness or scope of the tax."

The fee a travel agent charges really depends upon the agent. While some of the more luxury agencies have higher fees, the average fee is quite marginal. Some travel agents will even drop the fee or offer a discount once you have finalized your trip with them. Plus, you can always ask an agent upfront what their fees are and decide for yourself if it’s worth it. Also, it is important to remember that a lot of online booking sites, such as Orbitz and Expedia, charge a booking fee as well.

Travel Agent The suit, filed in Superior Court, resembles cases filed against the travel companies in other cities, including Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

Travel agents obtain some of their information from the same sources as online booking sites such as Orbitz and Travelocity. They also receive daily emails and faxes with new specials from resorts and hotels that may not be published on the internet. Travel agents can also call a place directly to see if they can work out other kinds of special deals for you, something an online site can’t do.

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