Wyndham Resort Fee Class Action Lawsuit Gets Trimmed

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Two Wyndham hotels companies will face one fewer claim in a proposed class action lawsuit alleging that the company uses deceptive “drip pricing.”

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Mark R. Hornak ruled in Pennsylvania that the lead plaintiff hadn’t been actually “aggrieved” by the pricing model.

This move follows an unsuccessful bid by the hotel companies to have the Wyndham class action lawsuit scrapped.

Plaintiff Thomas Luca Jr. claims that “resort fees” charged by Wyndham Hotel Group LLC and Wyndham Hotels and Resorts LLC are deceptive and don’t accurately reflect the nature of what a customer will really be charged. Allegedly, consumers can be misled by this pricing structure.

Luca stated that the hotel charges a “resort fee” which is a mandatory fee charged every night that a customer stays at the hotel.

The Wyndham resort fees class action claims that this fee is charged on top of a nightly rate. Although this fee is allegedly said to cover services, all other additional services are not covered in the resort fee and are assessed separately.

According to Luca, this pricing structure prohibits individuals from getting a clear picture of the fees that they are being charged.

He and his lawyers say this pricing method is an example of “drip pricing,” because one part of the price for a good or service is revealed to a perspective consumer, and then other charges are revealed later.

The Wyndham class action lawsuit argues that “failure to adequately disclose the resort fee charge as part of the true cost of renting a hotel room is deceptive and causes consumers, including Plaintiff and the Class, to believe that they are paying substantially less than they actually are being charged for a room at Defendants’ hotels.”

The Wyndham drip pricing class action lawsuit goes on to argue that customers are not made aware of the actual price of the rooms that they are paying for in comparison to equal rooms at other hotels and are therefore unable to make an informed purchase decision.

Luca argued that he was negatively affected by this pricing structure because the hotel’s terms of service allegedly limited his rights to sue, which violated the Truth in Consumer Contract, Warranty and Notice Act.

However, the judge disagreed and determined that Luca had not been negatively affected by this.

The judge said that Luca “alleges that the effect of the terms of use is that it deceives consumers into thinking that the provisions are enforceable and deters them from enforcing right that are otherwise provided under the law. [Luca], however, does not allege that the terms of use caused him any actual harm in his hotel booking process.

Allegedly, Luca didn’t demonstrate that he had been injured because he did not state that he was deterred from exercising his rights to sue. Instead, the judge argued that the actual harm he suffered was only from the drip pricing itself.

The plaintiff is represented by R. Bruce Carlson, Jamisen A. Etzel, Kelly K. Iverson, Gary F. Lynch and Derek J. Markle of Carlson Lynch Sweet Kilpela & Carpenter LLP, and Carey Alexander, Erin G. Comite and Joseph P. Guglielmo of Scott & Scott Attorneys at Law LLP.

The Wyndham Drip Pricing Class Action Lawsuit is Thomas Luca Jr. v. Wyndham Worldwide Corporation, et al., Case No. 2:16-cv-00746, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

UPDATE: 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 2: December 2019, the Wyndham resort fee class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.