Friday, July 2, 2010

“Hotels.com and TravelersFirst.org Join Forces to Pass the Internet Travel Tax Freedom Act” plus 3 more

“Hotels.com and TravelersFirst.org Join Forces to Pass the Internet Travel Tax Freedom Act” plus 3 more

Hotels.com and TravelersFirst.org Join Forces to Pass the Internet Travel Tax Freedom Act

Posted: 02 Jul 2010 10:38 AM PDT

Posted on: Friday, 2 July 2010, 10:29 CDT

DALLAS, July 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Hotels.com®, a leading provider of lodging worldwide, is joining TravelersFirst.org coalition to provide a forum for travelers to speak their disapproval over new legislation that could increase hotel prices by additionally taxing online travel agencies (OTA). By allowing this change, local and federal governments could freely tax online travelers without regard to oversight.

To prevent these unfair added costs, Hotels.com and TravelersFirst.org, an organization that represents online travel site users and serves to educate on important travel issues, are working together to protect travelers through the passage of the Internet Travel Tax Freedom Act (ITTFA).

This legislation would provide the following benefits:

  1. Protect all existing local hotel occupancy taxes.
  2. Allow states to tax the fees charged by travel intermediaries like travel agents and online travel companies.
  3. Prevent the nation's 7,000 local tax authorities from creating conflicting and contradictory tax policies in this area.
  4. End new litigation on the issue, while allowing ongoing cases to proceed.

The challenging economy continues to impact the ability for consumers to make travel plans, and for travel companies and local tourism boards to stay in business and grow in light of recent booking increases. Adding additional travel fees could reduce travel right when it is finally coming back, presenting negative ramifications on both consumers and businesses. During the recession, many families could not travel due to economic stressors, and adding extra fees may discourage them from traveling at all.

"Hotels.com has always been dedicated to providing the lowest possible travel rates," said Victor Owens, vice president of North American marketing for Hotels.com, "An affordable vacation is a much-needed release for the millions of hard-working Americans who have relied on 'staycations' during the economic downturn. New legislation would make a vacation more difficult, if not impossible, by raising lodging taxes and raising room rates."

Hotels.com urges travelers to join together and speak up by contacting your local Senators and asking them to support the ITTFA, developed by TravelersFirst.org to keep hotel prices low by stopping additional taxing, and by educating them on the following issues:

  • New and higher tourism taxes on hotels, airlines, car rentals, and travel intermediaries.
  • Inconsistent state and local tax regulations, which can lead to higher costs and less service.
  • Lack of transparency and/or access to ancillary airline fees.
  • Local tourism regulations that make travel more difficult or expensive for visitors.
  • Other pro-consumer travel policies to reduce costs and improve the travel experience.

By joining together, we can prevent this unfair tax. Click here to contact your local representative.

For further information, please contact: Taylor L. Cole, APR - Hotels.com Email: taycole@hotels.com Phone: (469) 335-8442 Miranda Harper - Ruder Finn for Hotels.com Email: harperm@ruderfinn.com Phone: (212) 715-1641 TravelersFirst.org: http://travelersfirst.org/

About Hotels.com

Hotels.com® is a leading provider of lodging worldwide, offering more than 85,000 properties in over 60 countries from national chain hotels and all-inclusive resorts to local favorites and bed & breakfasts. Hotels.com is the smarter way to book travel by offering welcomerewards®, an industry leading loyalty rewards program; the real opinions of other travelers captured in over 1.5 million Guest Reviews and; a Price Match Guarantee, so that those booking with Hotels.com can be assured they are getting the best deal, either online or by speaking directly to a travel expert at 1-800-2-HOTELS 24 hours a day. For more information, please visit hotels.com. Hotels.com is an operating company of Expedia, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXPE). Please visit the Hotels.com Travel Smart Blog for consumer and business travel information. Follow us on Twitter via www.twitter.com/hotelsdotcom, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/hotelsdotcom and take a VirtualVacation at www.virtualvacay.com. Hotels.com, A Smarter Way to Book(TM).

Hotels.com, Smart. So Smart. and the Hotels.com logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Hotels.com, LP. Other logos or products and company names mentioned herein may be the property of their respective owners © 2010 Hotels.com, LP. All rights reserved. CST # 2083949-50

SOURCE Hotels.com


Source: PR Newswire

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Hotels.com and TravelersFirst.org Join Forces to Pass the Internet Travel Tax Freedom Act

Posted: 02 Jul 2010 08:29 AM PDT

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DALLAS, July 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Hotels.com®, a leading provider of lodging worldwide, is joining TravelersFirst.org coalition to provide a forum for travelers to speak their disapproval over new legislation that could increase hotel prices by additionally taxing online travel agencies (OTA). By allowing this change, local and federal governments could freely tax online travelers without regard to oversight.

To prevent these unfair added costs, Hotels.com and TravelersFirst.org, an organization that represents online travel site users and serves to educate on important travel issues, are working together to protect travelers through the passage of the Internet Travel Tax Freedom Act (ITTFA).

This legislation would provide the following benefits:

  1. Protect all existing local hotel occupancy taxes.
  2. Allow states to tax the fees charged by travel intermediaries like travel agents and online travel companies.
  3. Prevent the nation's 7,000 local tax authorities from creating conflicting and contradictory tax policies in this area.
  4. End new litigation on the issue, while allowing ongoing cases to proceed.


The challenging economy continues to impact the ability for consumers to make travel plans, and for travel companies and local tourism boards to stay in business and grow in light of recent booking increases. Adding additional travel fees could reduce travel right when it is finally coming back, presenting negative ramifications on both consumers and businesses. During the recession, many families could not travel due to economic stressors, and adding extra fees may discourage them from traveling at all.

"Hotels.com has always been dedicated to providing the lowest possible travel rates," said Victor Owens, vice president of North American marketing for Hotels.com, "An affordable vacation is a much-needed release for the millions of hard-working Americans who have relied on 'staycations' during the economic downturn. New legislation would make a vacation more difficult, if not impossible, by raising lodging taxes and raising room rates."

Hotels.com urges travelers to join together and speak up by contacting your local Senators and asking them to support the ITTFA, developed by TravelersFirst.org to keep hotel prices low by stopping additional taxing, and by educating them on the following issues:

  • New and higher tourism taxes on hotels, airlines, car rentals, and travel intermediaries.
  • Inconsistent state and local tax regulations, which can lead to higher costs and less service.
  • Lack of transparency and/or access to ancillary airline fees.
  • Local tourism regulations that make travel more difficult or expensive for visitors.
  • Other pro-consumer travel policies to reduce costs and improve the travel experience.


By joining together, we can prevent this unfair tax. Click here to contact your local representative.

About Hotels.com

Hotels.com® is a leading provider of lodging worldwide, offering more than 85,000 properties in over 60 countries from national chain hotels and all-inclusive resorts to local favorites and bed & breakfasts. Hotels.com is the smarter way to book travel by offering welcomerewards®, an industry leading loyalty rewards program; the real opinions of other travelers captured in over 1.5 million Guest Reviews and; a Price Match Guarantee, so that those booking with Hotels.com can be assured they are getting the best deal, either online or by speaking directly to a travel expert at 1-800-2-HOTELS 24 hours a day. For more information, please visit hotels.com. Hotels.com is an operating company of Expedia, Inc. (Nasdaq:EXPE - News). Please visit the Hotels.com Travel Smart Blog for consumer and business travel information. Follow us on Twitter via www.twitter.com/hotelsdotcom, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/hotelsdotcom and take a VirtualVacation at www.virtualvacay.com. Hotels.com, A Smarter Way to Book™.

Hotels.com, Smart. So Smart. and the Hotels.com logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Hotels.com, LP. Other logos or products and company names mentioned herein may be the property of their respective owners © 2010 Hotels.com, LP. All rights reserved. CST # 2083949-50

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Hotels dispensing with bathroom clutter

Posted: 02 Jul 2010 02:32 PM PDT

You check in at the luxury hotel. You let yourself in the room. You realize something is missing.

Bathrobe? Check. Minibar? Check. High thread count bed sheets? Check. Those amenities are all there.

You walk to the bathroom, you pull back the shower curtain, and what the ...?

Some upscale hotels are doing away with tiny shampoo bottles and miniature bars of bath soap and installing push-button dispensers instead.

Standard in many budget hotel chains across the U.S. and Europe, amenities dispensers in luxe hotels strike some frequent travelers as tacky and unsanitary. "Seems cheap to me," says software trainer Melissa Odom, who spends about 200 nights a year in hotels. "I'd think, 'Ick, whose hands have been on this?' "

Other travelers notice, but don't seem to mind. "I don't particularly like them," says travel planner Sheri Doyle, "but I appreciate the environmental reasons for doing it."

Dispensing with the landfill
Pat Maher, the green consultant for the American Hotel and Lodging Association, predicts amenities dispensers will be the norm within five years. "Right now, half a million of those little shampoo bottles end up in landfills every day. Hotels that say they're eco-friendly establishments and doing all those things they do with the greening of their hotels ... will start getting complaints if people stay at their hotels and they don't have soap dispensers."

Maher says properties currently testing or installing bathroom amenities dispensers include the Kimpton, Ritz Carlton and Choice Hotels as well as Starwood's extended-stay Element Hotels.

But the historic Davenport Hotel in Spokane, Wash. — the first hotel to have air conditioning and a central vacuum system — has had amenities dispensers in all guest bathrooms since the hotel's $38 million makeover in 2002. "The hotel owners were a little ahead of the curve on that," says the Davenport's Matt Jensen. "It's very efficient, it makes sense financially and it fits in with the hotel's historically green approach. We fill the dispensers with very high quality bath products, and the only people who seem disappointed are the ones who like taking home those little bottles of shampoo."

S.O.S. — Save Our Soap
Of course plenty of hotels still stock guest bathrooms with a full array of miniature products. But look closely and you may notice those products tend to be shrinking. "Only about 10 percent of a bar of hotel soap gets used," says Maher. "So some hotels are using smaller bars or using bars with curves carved into them so that the bars looks the same size, but have a third less soap."

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No charges for Prince Hotels in teacher, injunction snub

Posted: 02 Jul 2010 02:22 PM PDT

Prosecutors will not charge Prince Hotels Inc. or its officials with violating the lodging business law for refusing to accommodate members of the Japan Teachers Union at some of its Tokyo inns in 2007, according to sources.

The decision has drawn to a close a case that commanded national attention over its implications for the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of assembly, given that the hotel operator's action was based on its concern about the noise rightist groups threatened to cause with their loudspeaker trucks.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office, which investigated the case, determined that the union's primary purpose was to use a banquet hall for seminars and that lodging at the hotels was only incidental, the sources said.

The office also decided that the degree of criminality in the act was small after the hotelier argued that while it knew of the illegality of refusing union members' accommodations, it nonetheless turned down the union's use of the banquet hall and its members' lodging out of concern over the possible impact on neighbors, according to the sources.

The Japan Teachers Union, or Nikkyoso, booked accommodations for four days for 190 people at the Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa in Tokyo and two other hotels in the chain in August 2007 for an annual conference planned in February the following year.

But the hotel chain canceled the contract in November 2007, citing fears that rightist groups might gather near the hotel to protest the meeting and cause trouble for its guests and neighbors.

Prince Hotels refused to follow injunctions issued by the Tokyo District and High courts to allow the union to use the hotel as a meeting venue, generating widespread criticism of its disregard for judicial authority.

Papers on Prince Hotels and four of its officials, including Chairman Yukihiro Watanabe, 63, were sent to prosecutors in March 2009 on suspicion of breaking the lodging business law by refusing to let the union members stay without justifiable reasons.

The union sued Prince Hotels seeking about ¥290 million in compensation, and last July the Tokyo District Court ordered the hotelier to pay the union in full.

The operator appealed the case to the Tokyo High Court, but the litigants are expected to begin talks soon on a possible court-mediated settlement.

The lodging business law stipulates that hotels and inns cannot refuse guests accommodations unless they have an infectious disease or are feared to commit an illegal act. Those who violate the law face a penalty of up to ¥20,000.

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