A Wisconsin man is suing travel website Expedia and its partner Eventblocks, claiming nonrefundable hotel reservations made through the sites cause users’ reservations to land on incorrect dates, causing them to miss the events, such as the Taste of Chicago, which had prompted them to book in the first place.
Plaintiff Brian McCarter filed a class action suit against the companies on the grounds they have made a “practice of advertising and selling hotel room reservations based on false and misleading information.”
Eventblocks operates a website that allows users to search for hotel rooms by entering the name of an event. Once the event has been selected, the site auto-populates the location and dates and displays a selection of hotel rooms brokered by Expedia in the surrounding area.
McCarter said he used the site last June to book a hotel reservation during the Taste of Chicago. When he selected the event, the site auto-populated dates of July 4 through 8. McCarter used the site to book a room from July 6 to 7. He said the room cost several hundred dollars and was nonrefundable. He did not realize at the time that the 2018 Taste of Chicago was actually scheduled to begin July 11 – four days after his checkout time.
In his suit, McCarter gives several other examples of Chicago events for which Eventblocks gave the wrong dates, including the Old Town Art Fair, Lincoln Park Wine Fest and Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival.
“These examples are just from Chicago alone, and do not include the many other cities where Defendants advertise and sell hotel room reservations for specific events,” the lawsuit states. “Defendants’ practice of falsely and inaccurately publicizing the dates for events … has harmed the consumers who use Defendants’ website.”
The lawsuit claims that consumers who, like McCarter, assumed the dates provided by the system were correct, were out the time and money associated with canceling or rescheduling reservations. In many cases, according to court documents, hotel rooms reserved through the system are nonrefundable.
The suit claims the companies committed two violations of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act. It argues that misrepresenting dates it knew consumers would rely upon to make their purchases is a deceptive practice and that inflicting the burden on customers of changing or canceling reservations is an unfair practice.
The third count of the lawsuit claims common law negligence on the part of Eventblocks for designing the site to auto-populate event dates but not putting in a failsafe to make sure the dates display accurately.
The fourth count claims breach of implied contract, arguing that the companies entered into an implied contract with consumers when they offered a service for a fee. The fifth count charges the companies with unjust enrichment, claiming their policy of not providing refunds ensured they continued to make a profit even if their users lost money on reservations they could not use to attend the event they desired.
McCarter filed the suit on behalf of all persons in the U.S. who purchased a reservation through Eventblocks for an event scheduled for dates other than those given by the site. There are two subclasses – one for people who either lived in or scheduled a reservation for an event in Illinois, and one for people whose reservations were nonrefundable.
The suit asks for class certification, actual damages, disgorgement of profits, court costs and an enjoinder to stop selling hotel reservations based upon inaccurate event dates.
The plaintiff has requested a jury trial. McCarter is represented by attorneys Paul T. Geske and Myles McGuire of McGuire Law P.C., of Chicago.