Care required with Russian based hotel booking systems..
| The Cullen Law Firm, PLLC files consumer class action lawsuit against Hyatt | |
| The Cullen Law Firm, PLLC announces that a consumer class action lawsuit was filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois against Hyatt International Corporation, on behalf of all guests of Hyatt's hotel in Moscow since July 2002. | |
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The
complaint, filed under the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive
Business Practices Act, alleges that Hyatt made deceptive and misleading
representations through its worldwide, internet based reservation system
on the rates that would be charged at the Ararat Park Hyatt in Moscow,
Russia. According to the complaint, Hyatt quotes rates in U.S. dollars
knowing that the final hotel bill will be paid in Russian rubles in
amounts that are higher than those calculated at the official exchange
rate. Hotel guests generally find out about the problem when they get
their credit card statement in dollars. According to the complaint,
consumers generally pay upwards of 16 percent more than the amount
quoted by Hyatt when their reservations were made. Paul D. Cullen, Sr.,
counsel for the plaintiffs estimates that there have been several
thousand hotel guests victimized by the deceptive practices alleged in
the complaint during the period covered by the three year statute of
limitations. Separate cases have been filed by The Cullen Law Firm against Marriott International, Inc. and against Radisson Hotels International, Inc., dealing with the same problem addressed in the Hyatt litigation. 'The practice of inflating hotel charges quoted in dollars, but paid in rubles, seems to be widespread,' said Mr. Cullen. 'The issue presented by these cases is not whether the practice is lawful under the Russian legal system', observed Mr. Cullen. 'The real issue is whether a U.S. based hotel chain can be held accountable under domestic law if it makes false or misleading statements to potential hotel guests that conceal this practice when it books reservations for its overseas hotel properties', according to Mr. Cullen. |
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