07:01 PM CDT on Monday, April 10, 2006

By Doug Miller / 11 News

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Houston's mayor plans to file lawsuits against some of the nation's biggest travel Web sites including Travelocity and Expedia.

AP

Mayor Bill White wants to collect millions of dollars in unpaid travel taxes.

Here's why: When you check into a hotel, you pay hotel occupancy taxes. And Houston banks on its hotel taxes to pay for amenities like Minute Maid Park

But travel Web sites basically rent big blocks of hotel rooms at what city officials call a bulk rate, then sell them to the public for a higher price.

Most of the Web sites pay hotel occupancy taxes only on the so-called bulk rate they pay for the rooms -- not the end price actually paid by the customer. So Houston's city government is hiring a law firm to take some of the big travel Web sites to court.

"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."

A number of other cities have filed similar lawsuits.

But the Interactive Travel Services Association says, "The amount the online travel companies make for facilitating the room booking is not subject to the city's 'occupancy' tax."