Skift Take
The online travel agencies have lots of competitive advantages over hotels and the sales tax disparity is one of them.
Marriott, Hilton, InterContinental, Starwood, and the rest of the hotel industry are pressing the State of Maryland to make online travel agencies such as Expedia pay sales tax on the room rate consumers pay when they book a room so that the hotels can compete more effectively against these rivals.
Thomas Maloney, Marriott International's director of government affairs, recently testified in the chain's home state before the Maryland Assembly's Ways and Means Committee in support of a bill (HB 1065) that would require online travel agencies to pay sales tax on the full retail rate, and not just the
