Voters in Anaheim, California, will decide Nov. 8 on Measure J, which would require online travel companies to be taxed as much as hotels whenever a room is booked.
Typically, hotel guests in the city that book a room through an online travel agency, like Expedia or Travelocity, pay less tax than directly booking through the hotel.
That’s because the online seller only has to tax consumers at the wholesale rate—for which an online agency purchases a hotel room—rather than the higher retail price of a nightly stay at the room.
Anaheim has a 15 percent hotel tax. So, if an online agency pays a wholesale price of $100 for a night at a hotel room, and sells it for $200, it will only be taxed $15….