Wyndham Hotel Guest Seeks Cert. in Resort Fees Class Action Lawsuit

A Wyndham Hotel guest who claims the company tricks customers into purchasing hotel rooms by hiding resort fees has asked a Pennsylvania federal court to grant Class certification in the lawsuit.

The Wyndham class action argues that the hotel chain has generated millions of dollars by sneaking in resort fees to each guest who purchases a stay in one of their hotel rooms.

The Wyndham Hotel class action says that every person who booked their room on the website and paid a resort fee was responsible for agreeing to the website’s terms of use despite this being a violation of the New Jersey Truth-in-Consumer Contract, Warranty and Notice Act, and the Consumer Fraud Act.

The Wyndham Hotel guest who filed the class action say he was shown a lower rate when looking for reservations online, but that resort fees were then added to that total after the fact. Plaintiff Thomas Luca Jr. say this is a bait and switch scheme.

Luca states in his request for Class certification that common issues of law will be presented in all the cases and that the issue at heart is the allegedly illegal scheme, not the individual experiences of one person.

The plaintiff in that Wyndham class action already argued that the TCCWNA claim should not be thrown out following a New Jersey Supreme Court decision in April.

That Supreme Court decision held that a plaintiff must have suffered adverse consequences due to challenged website terms in order to be classified as an aggrieved consumer.

Wyndham attempted to argue that the plaintiff hasn’t shown proof of any harm suffered under the website’s terms and that the company’s provisions about liability for certain kinds of damages would block this claim anyways.

The Wyndham resort fee class action was filed in 2016 after the company reportedly listed a different rate for booking a room while hiding the details of the resort fee.

According to the Wyndham class action lawsuit, the company is misleading consumers about the true cost of a hotel room, which ends up being higher due to the resort fee added later.

The plaintiff in the Wyndham resort fee class action lawsuit says that this deceptive policy harms consumers, violates state consumer protection laws, and allows the companies to collect extra fees and profits.

Two of the defendant entities were successful in fighting back against this claim in 2017, when the judge said that the claims against Wyndham Hotel Management Inc. and Wyndham Worldwide Corp. would be dismissed.

However, Wyndham Hotel Group and Wyndham Hotels and Resorts are still involved in this class action.

The judge reviewing those dismissal motions determined that the plaintiff had been successful in showing that he had claims against both of them at that time.

The plaintiff is represented by Gary F. Lynch and Jamisen A. Etzel of Carlson Lynch Sweet Kilpela & Carpenter LLP and Joseph P. Guglielmo and Erin Green Comite of Scott & Scott Attorneys at Law LLP.

The Wyndham Hidden Resort Fee Class Action Lawsuit is Thomas Luca Jr. v. Wyndham Hotel Group LLC, et al., Case No. 2:16-cv-00746, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

UPDATE: On Jan. 16, 2019, a federal judge dropped one allegation in the Wyndham resort fees class action lawsuit.

UPDATE 2: On Oct. 15, 2019, Wyndham reached a proposed settlement deal with customers who claimed that the company used “drip pricing” to conceal the full price of room booking from guests.

UPDATE 3: December 2019, the Wyndham resort fee class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.