City takes aim at travel websites

Mayor Bill White is planning to sue some of the most popular travel websites, including Travelocity and Expedia, because people who book hotel rooms through the services don't pay the hotel occupancy taxes that pay for our stadiums stadia sports palaces.

Travel websites rent blocks of hotel rooms at a bulk rate, then re-rent them to the public at a higher price. The sites pay the hotel occupancy tax on the bulk rate, but not on the price the customers end up paying, which means the city isn't getting the full possible tax from each room sale. That means when Houston gets a professional curling team, the city might not have enough money to build it a world-class stadium — and you can only imagine how embarrassing that would be.

"They're booking the hotel rooms, but nobody's paying the tax on those rooms. And that's just not fair," said Mayor White. "Whether somebody walks at the desk or uses a local travel agent or uses a computer shouldn't make any difference."

The Interactive Travel Services Association contends that the money online travel services make for "facilitating the room booking" shouldn't be subject to cities' occupancy taxes. Several other cities have filed similar suits, including Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Atlanta.