Dallas-Based Hotels.com Says It'll Match Any Rate For Any Room. Lawsuit Says: No It Won't.

North Central Expressway-based Hotels.com promises, right here, that if you book a room through its website and then find "a lower publicly available rate online for the same dates, hotel, and room category," then, heck, they'll happily "match the price and refund you the difference." Not only that, but Hotels.com will meet that match "right up to the time of the property's cancellation deadline, whether that is three days after you made the reservation or three months. So stop worrying and start booking." Which is what Kaylen Silverberg did. And why he's suing Hotels.com in Dallas County District Court.

We find the filing on Courthouse News, which notes that Silverberg's is a proposed class action being brought by Gary Eisenstat of Figari & Davenport. Says Silverberg, in April of last year he booked a room at a California resort at the rate of $355 per night. But then he found it elsewhere, on HotelClub.com, for far less -- $223 a night. Then an even better deal came along: $213 per night on HotelPlanner.com. Surely, he figured, Hotels.com would make good on its promise of a refund.

Not so fast, says the suit, which claims Silverberg was told Hotels.com could only match the price up to $71 per night -- not quite the good deal he'd been promised. Alleges the suit, "Hotels.com has an arbitrary and undisclosed policy to refund only a portion of the difference between its rate and other, lower rates." Hence the suit.