Struggling to afford hotel prices? A new lawsuit alleges Expedia is jacking up costs across the board.

A proposed class-action lawsuit filed on Oct. 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington accuses the Seattle-based online travel agency of artificially inflating hotel rates by prohibiting hotels from offering lower rates elsewhere — including the hotels' own websites.

The lawsuit argues that hotels are willing to pay a steep commission to Expedia, which they recover by raising prices, because they’ll lose significant business if they don’t appear on the booking giant’s website.

Expedia charges a 15% commission when people book hotels through its website, according to the lawsuit. Hotels that want even more visibility on Expedia can pay up to 30% commissions.

If a hotel breaks Expedia's rules and offers a lower price elsewhere, according to the lawsuit, Expedia's system flags it and punishes the hotel by demoting its placement in search results. The lawsuit claims hotels keep prices the same everywhere instead of discounting to avoid being buried.

“As a result, Expedia has forced millions of consumers to pay artificially inflated prices for hotel rooms in the United States, the lawyers wrote in the complaint.

A spokesperson for Expedia said in an email that the lawsuit’s allegations “are meritless” and the company has given consumers “competitive offerings and better value from travel suppliers” since its founding in 1996.

The plaintiffs — Pennsylvania resident Lorraine Rocci, California resident Ronisha Andrews and Bellevue resident Pak Seong Hoi — disagree. Through their lawyers with the Seattle-based firm Terrell Marshall Law Group, they argue that Expedia used monopoly power to make their trips more expensive.

Expedia owns Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Travelocity, Orbitz and CheapTickets, which the lawsuit claims facilitate nearly 80% of hotel booking transactions nationwide when measured in dollars.

Booking.com, arguably Expedia’s biggest competitor, also restricts hotels in the U.S. from offering lower prices elsewhere. After legal challenges in Europe, it removed the clauses from contracts with hotels across the European Economic Area, which includes 30 countries, in 2024.

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