WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sens. Steve Daines (R-MT) and Bill Nelson (D-FL) introduced legislation to protect consumers from online booking scams.  

Daines and Nelson introduced the Stop Online Booking Scams Act that protects consumers from illegitimate third party websites that trick consumers into thinking they are making reservations directly with hotels.

Online booking sites have created a marketplace where consumers can shop for hotels across thousands of brands on a single platform. With the rise of online booking (480 bookings per minute) has come an increase in online booking scams. Fraudulent websites give the appearance of being connected to a hotel, but actually have no relationship with them. Transactions on these sites can result in additional hidden fees, loss of expected loyalty points, or even confirmation of reservations that were never made. The Stop Online Booking Scams Act addresses this problem.

“Tourism is an important part of Montana’s economy and we need to make sure that folks are getting what was promised to them,” Daines stated. “Legitimate online booking sites provide consumers with a valuable tool for comparison shopping, but deceptive websites trick consumers and scam them into paying for reservations that don’t exist.”

“This bill intends to crackdown on crooks and fraudsters who trick consumers into booking hotel rooms that don’t exist,” said Nelson, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee.  “Millions of consumers use the Internet to easily compare prices and find great deals on hotel rooms.  We can’t have a few bad actors ruin this for everyone else.”