Expedia Class Action Alleges ‘Bait and Switch’ Hotel Booking Tactics

A California hotel operator has filed a proposed class action lawsuit against against Expedia, alleging that the online travel giant uses fake deals to lure customers in for properties not listed on its sites and then diverts interested customers to book with one of its partner hotels instead.

The class action lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Northern California, accuses Expedia off false advertising, unfair competition, and “bait and switch” tactics.

The complaint was filed by the operator of the Buckeye Tree Lodge and Sequoia Village Inn in Three Rivers, Calif.

The class action lawsuit says Expedia lures customers with online deals for hotels that are not bookable through Expedia.com or its other sites.

When a customer clicks on these “deals” and tries to make a reservation through Expedia, the site falsely shows there is no vacancy and suggests alternative hotels in the area, the complaint alleges.

“Expedia’s website falsely shows that there is no availability at the hotel, but then pushes the consumers to ‘deals’ at Expedia’s nearby member hotels, who pay Expedia a fee for every room booked through its website,” the complaint says. “Expedia’s deceit is brazen. Expedia posts fake telephone numbers for Buckeye Tree Lodge and other Class Member hotels to divert callers to Expedia’s own operators, who then try to book the consumers at Expedia member hotels.”

“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. Believing Expedia’s representation that there is no availability at a class member hotel, consumers take their business to Expedia member hotels. And the bait and switch is complete,” the lawsuit reads.

Buckeye Tree Lodge and Sequoia Village Inn LLC is the single, named plaintiff. It’s a simple scam, and a “classic bait and switch,” the hotelier claims: “Defendants push ‘deals’ for stays at their members’ hotels and lie about the availability of rooms at non-member hotels.”

And consumers have no way of telling which hotels do business with the websites and which do not, according to the complaint.

Additionally, Expedia employs social media to advertise to customers that they can book rooms at non-member hotels, luring consumers to their site, then redirecting them to other hotels, violating the victim hotels’ trademarks, interfering with their business and profiting unjustly, Buckeye Tree Lodge states.

“The deception starts even before consumers visit the websites. Defendants purchase false and misleading advertisements on internet search engines like Google, to funnel traffic to their websites,” the complaint alleges. “For example, when a consumer uses Google to search for the Buckeye Tree Lodge, the engine’s top result returns an advertisement purchased by defendants to ‘Book Buckeye Tree Lodge’ and promising ‘Incredible Offers on Great Hotels. Buckeye Tree Lodge.'”

“In truth, at all relevant times, defendants had no affiliation with Buckeye Tree Lodge and the class members, and defendants had no way to actually book stays at Buckeye Tree Lodge or at the class members’ hotels on behalf of consumers,” the plaintiff claims.

The lawsuit also names online travel services and websites Hotels.com, Orbitz, and Trivago as defendants.

The plaintiff seeks certification of a national Class and a California subclass, of “all hotels, lodges, inns, motels and providers of overnight accommodations whose names appeared on Hotels.com, Expedia.com, Orbitz.com or Trivago.com with whom Defendants did not have a booking agreement” within the last four years.

The class action lawsuit further seeks a permanent injunction, restitution, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, and damages for false advertising, trademark violations, unfair competition, business code violations, intentional and negligent interference with prospective economic advantage, and unjust enrichment.

The hotel operator plaintiff says the issue qualifies for class action status because there are more than 100 putative Class Members affected by these tactics and the amount in controversy exceeds $5 million.

Buckeye Tree Lodge and Sequoia Village Inn LLC is represented by James R. Patterson, Allison H. Goddard and Elizabeth A. Mitchell of Patterson Law Group.

The Expedia Bait & Switch Hotel Booking Class Action Lawsuit is Buckeye Tree Lodge and Sequoia Village Inn LLC v. Expedia Inc., et al., Case No. 3:16-cv-04721, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Northern California.

UPDATE: On Jan. 12, 2017, a judge dismissed a class action alleging Expedia cost hotels bookings by erroneously listing them as having no vacancies, but offered the plaintiffs another chance to plead their case.

UPDATE 2: On May 5, 2017, two hotel operators joined forces in a false advertising class action lawsuit against the travel booking website Expedia. The hotel operators claim that Expedia and several of its affiliated travel booking websites have been unlawfully luring hotel customers by using a “bait and switch” tactic.

UPDATE 3: On Oct. 11, 2017, a federal judge summarily did away with defendant Expedia Inc.’s attempt to limit the claims it’s facing, concluding that “[i]t’s not even a close question” whether the hotel plaintiffs have adequately pled their claims. Therefore, the Expedia hotel booking class action lawsuit will continue.

UPDATE 4: On Feb. 22, 2018, two hotels have filed a motion to certify a class action lawsuit accusing Expedia Inc., Hotels.com GP LLC and Orbitz LLC of engaging in a “classic bait and switch marketing scheme” by redirecting consumers to book reservations at hotels that are unaffiliated with the travel-booking sites, but which provide the companies with a cut of the booking.

UPDATE 5: On March 13, 2019, a federal judge partially certified a Class of hotel businesses that were allegedly harmed by Expedia redirecting customers to hotels that provide a cut of the booking to the travel reservation giant.