DC wins hotel tax suit against online travel booker Orbitz, others
Washington Post
A D.C. Superior Court judge has ruled that online travel firms should pay taxes on the full retail price of hotel rooms that they sell to consumers.
In a filing released Monday, Judge Craig Iscoe said that the online travel companies, including Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity and Priceline, must pay a 14.5 percent tax on the full retail price of hotel rooms. The travel companies have been paying taxes on the wholesale price, which is cheaper.
In his ruling, Iscoe said that the online travel firms are “making a retail sale that is taxable under this statute” and that their services are “taxable under the D.C. gross sales tax law.”
Venezuela reaches for new tourism heights
euronews
The highest peaks in Venezuela are at the centre of an ambitious re-building programme. As part of an effort to reconstruct the country’s tourism industry it will build the Mérida cable car, which is the longest and highest in the world.
Construction at almost five kilometres up in the northern Andes on Pico Espejo takes nerve and precise planning.
Four hundred and fifty engineers work around the clock, battling severe weather conditions and the altitude.
Loews Hotels offers its top guests Global Entry
Boston.com
Loews Hotels & Resorts is offering the top-tier members of its loyalty program free membership in U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s expedited immigration program, Global Entry.
Members of the program can skip lines when flying back into the United States. Using an automated kiosk, travelers scan their passports and fingerprints, answer the customs declaration questions and proceed with a receipt to the exit.
Anybody in Global Entry also gets to participate in the Transportation Security Administration’s PreCheck expedited screening program. Precheck allows travelers to pass through airport security without taking off their shoes, removing laptops and liquids from bags or taking off belts and light jackets.
Las Vegas Airline Would Let Flyers Gamble on Prices
ABC News
With all the angst that goes into buying an airline ticket — Am I too early or too late? Do I wait until the last minute or purchase far in advance?
What about the fees? — purchasing airfare can feel like a bit of a gamble.
But one Las Vegas carrier wants to raise the stakes, so to speak. In a plan outlined in Bloomberg Business Week, Allegiant Air is considering a pricing structure where customers can either lock in a price or choose an adjustable ticket price based on fuel price fluctuations before travel.
In other words, fliers would have to pay more if fuel goes up or would get a partial refund if fuel goes down.
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