In 2008, Myrtle Beach and Horry County sued several popular travel sites alleging they might be withholding tax dollars collected on accommodations taxes for rooms booked through the sites.
According to the lawsuit, the websites purchased rooms from Grand Strand area hotels and then sold them online at a higher price but only paid city and county the taxes on the purchase price, not the mark up price.
Friday, Horry County announced that it signed a settlement with 14 online travel companies and their affiliates at the end of March.
Horry County Administrator John Weaver said in a news release, "The settlement is intended to compromise disputed claims, however the defendants are not admitting any liability for any taxes claimed in the pending lawsuit and any payments made by the defendants are not for the purpose of paying past or future taxes. Horry County is also not admitting that hotel local accommodation taxes were not due in the pending lawsuit or for the past or future. Both parties have agreed to enter into the settlement in order to put to rest the uncertainty and expense of continued litigation."
The county said the settlement included payment by the online travel companies to Horry County of $1,716,000.
The county lists the defendants as: Hotels.com, L.P., Hotels.com GP, Hotwire, Inc., Expedia, Inc., Trip Network, Inc. (d/b/a Cheap Tickets.com), Travelport Americas LLC (f/k/a Travelport, Inc. (f/k/a Cendant Travel Distribution Services Group Inc.)), Internetwork Publishing Corp. (d/b/a Lodging.com), Lowestfare.com, Incorporated, Orbitz LLC, priceline.com, Incorporated, Site59.com, LLC, Travelocity.com L.P., TravelNow.com, Inc., and Travelweb LLC.
Myrtle Beach's public information officer, Mark Kruea, said the city was not involved in the settlement.
