A Montreal man wants to sue 13 major travel websites and hotel chains, accusing them of posting prices online that don't reflect the final price.
Chafik Mihoubi said the last straw was last October when he was booking a room on priceline.com that lured him in with a seemingly cheap rate but didn't include $25 in fees.
Mihoubi said he noted as much as a 30% difference between the advertised and final prices on the different websites he consulted.
"It's very time-consuming - you're trying to save so you're comparing and you're not comparing apples to apples so you're trying as much as you can to be able to see what's inside the apple. You have to do extra steps in each website which is not normal," said Mihoubi in an interview with CJAD 800.
"We're not talking about big amounts but still - when you're trying to book a room for $110 instead of $160 and then you end up paying $165, that's frustrating."
The class action lawsuit request argues that the practice of not including all fees in the total price upfront is illegal, violating Quebec's consumer protection laws.
"You think it's normal because it looks like it's taxes but it's not clear and you have to ask. And when you ask, they tell you, This is this fee and this is another fee," said Chihoubi.
"It's not fair and it's a way of making money for them but it's not legal here so let's make them realize we are not accepting it."
Companies such as wyndhamhotels.com that are named in the class action request told CJAD 800 they won't comment since it's before the courts.
The other companies are: