Expedia, Orbitz, Hotels.com 'Baited' Customers, Lawsuit Alleges

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

Popular travel website brands Expedia, Inc., Hotels.com, L.P., Hotels.com GP, LLC, and Orbitz, LLC (collectively referred to as “Expedia”) are the defendants in a proposed class action filed by a luxury Washington D.C. hotel that alleges the companies bait customers with online deals for stays at hotels that are not affiliated with and cannot be booked through the defendants’ services.

Citing possible violations of the federal Lanham Act, the case claims that the “switch” part of the defendants’ alleged bait-and-switch scheme begins after consumers are first given the idea that they can book certain hotels through the defendants’ websites. The complaint describes this scenario in detail:

“Expedia’s website falsely shows that there is no availability at the hotel, but then pushes consumers to ‘deals’ at Expedia’s nearby member hotels, who pay Expedia a fee for every room booked through its website,” the lawsuit alleges.

Another component of Expedia’s “brazen” scheme, the lawsuit alleges, is that it goes so far as to post fake telephone numbers for proposed class member hotels that diverts callers to the defendants’ own operators, who then push consumers to book at Expedia members’ hotels. And it doesn’t appear to end there:

“Worse, Expedia then targets social media advertisements – for hotels it cannot book – to those consumers, using the brands of class member hotels to divert business from them to Expedia members,” the case asserts.