Since Portland isn't much of a "destination" city you would think that the Expedia and Priceline's of the world wouldn't be booking all that much travel that included a hotel stay in our beloved and crumbling burg.

My question to the idiots at City Hall is how much cash do you really think you're going to get out of this? Enough to cover the salaries of the city lawyers handling this joke of case? Maybe enough to pay for one of Admiral Randy's Loos??

The court says the city is only entitled to tax what the OTC pays, not what the person staying in the rooms pays; so Portland still collects room taxes, but less than if a person books directly with the hotel.

What I am wondering is if in the past when I booked through an OTC (like Delta Airlines and Orbitz), did they levy room taxes on what I paid them or what they paid the hotels? Worth checking next time.

I know in Las Vegas a lot of hotels are charging "resort fees" of $25 a night plus in part because the lodging tax doesn't apply to such room fees.

I read once that part of the issue is that the booking services collect room taxes on what the customer pays, but remit room taxes only on what they pay the hotel operator, in effect pocketing part of what they're telling the customer is the room tax.

The quickest way to reduce jobs in the hotel industry would be to retroactively reduce the benefits that a hotel gets by brokering online. A "Stay alive" occupancy rate allows a hotel/motel to keep a core staff working, and possibly make a profit when and if more customers show up. Portland bureaucrats would rather give subsidies to new hotels, rather than just staying out of the way.