Photo by Rich Brooks
Ever wonder how those online travel sites can get such lower rates than you? Well it turns out that they buy up reservations in bulk at negotiated wholesale prices. The problem is they only pay accomodations tax on the lower amount and not the price they sell the reservation for.
And you know how we like our accomodations tax money here in Horry County.
You may recognize some of the defendants: Hotels.com, L.P., Hotels.com GP, Hotwire, Inc., Expedia, Inc., Trip Network, Inc. (d/b/a Cheap Tickets.com), Travelport Americas LLC (f/k/a Travelport, Inc. (f/k/a Cendant Travel Distribution Services Group Inc.)), Internetwork Publishing Corp. (d/b/a Lodging.com), Lowestfare.com, Incorporated, Orbitz LLC, priceline.com, Incorporated, Site59.com, LLC, Travelocity.com L.P., TravelNow.com, Inc., and Travelweb LLC.
The City of Myrtle Beach is also pursuing similar litigation, but they are not a part of this settlement or suit. Both The Sun News and WPDE have more information in their write-ups including the amount of the settlement.
