Business & Tech

Expedia Ditches Arcadia Market Due to Hotel Tax

Expedia, Inc. won't book hotel rooms in Arcadia because of a measure that extended the city's 10 percent hotel occupancy tax to services provided by travel intermediaries.

A hotel tax has prompted Expedia, Inc. to pull out of the Arcadia travel market. In April, Arcadia voters overwhelmingly approved Measure D, which extended the city's 10 percent hotel occupancy tax to services provided by travel intermediaries ranging from brick-and-mortar travel agencies to Internet companies such as Expedia.

According to the Pasadena Star-News, Expedia sent a letter to city saying hotels in Arcadia would no longer be bookable through the company's points of sale. Brent Thompson, Expedia's senior vice president and chief of global government and corporate affairs, explained his company's decision to the Star-News.

"When (voter's passed Measure D) it necessitated that we become a taxpayer in Arcadia, which includes the filing of periodic tax returns, making remittances to the city and doing the accounting for that particular jurisdiction," he said. "We were not happy to learn of this...We are not set up to be the taxpayer in every jurisdiction in which we do business."

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