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Price Fixing Among Hotels and Online Travel Agencies? A CBS This Morning Report

CBS News, Hotels & Accommodations, Travel Planning, TV/Videos — on August 23, 2012 9:33 am
Price Fixing Among Hotels and Online Travel Agencies? A CBS This Morning Report

A recent anti-trust lawsuit claims that major hotel chains and online travel agencies (OTA) colluded to fix hotel prices across the country. Translation? Instead of finding competitive rates, consumers are allegedly seeing the same prices on almost every site.

Named in the class-action lawsuit are Expedia, Inc., Travelocity.com LP, Sabre Holdings Corporation, Booking.com (a subsidiary of Priceline), Priceline.com, Inc., Orbitz Worldwide, Inc., Hilton Worldwide, Inc., Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., Marriott International, Inc., Trump International Hotels Management, LLC, Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, LLC, and Intercontinental Hotels Group Resources, Inc.

Peter sat down with Charlie Rose and Gayle King on CBS This Morning to explain the story behind the lawsuit and how the OTAs are responding to the claim. Plus, he shares his tips on how the art of conversation can help you avoid online shopping altogether.

 

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  • http://www.facebook.com/nancy.l.halpin Nancy L Halpin

    I’ve always booked my travel by using the good ol’ telephone. There is something personable about doing it that way. And you never know, you could meet that person who helped you when you arrive at the hotel. Happened to me a few times. Once you have a relationship with them, easier to get great rates!

  • Anonymous

    From my experience is that the HOTELS, not the online agencies that are price fixing. The hotels do not allow the online agencies to sell below the price advertised by the hotel direct site and threated the online agenmcies if they do.