00:02Jacob Cass has just finished this cracking beach holiday
00:06with mates at a New South Wales caravan park,
00:09but he's paid a hefty price.
00:11It's left a sour taste about the holiday.
00:13What Jacob didn't realise is he'd booked using guest reservations,
00:17not directly with the holiday park.
00:20$1,099 USD, $1,500 Australian
00:24for three nights accommodation in a caravan park.
00:26Here's how guest reservations works.
00:28It pays Google to advertise a website address
00:32starting with the hotel's name,
00:34displays images taken directly from accommodation websites,
00:38often without consent,
00:40has an alarm clock pop-up and adds large service fees and taxes.
00:45This is a business model that's fully built on deception.
00:48Consumer advocate Erin Turner is so concerned by the company's tactics
00:53she's referring it to the ACCC.
00:55The behaviour of this company is deeply unfair.
00:57Even she was tricked by them.
00:59Rather than the $280 I was expecting,
01:02I was charged $28 in a tax-like fee
01:07and over $100 in service fees.
01:09Richard Munro runs a start-up,
01:11helping hotel operators fight back against online travel companies
01:15which use their images without consent.
01:18That's costing consumers and the hotel literally thousands and thousands of dollars a day.
01:25Guest reservations list 100,000 hotels worldwide,
01:29including hundreds across Australia.
01:31One frustrated provider told the ABC
01:34it had tried unsuccessfully to have its hotels removed.
01:38The company didn't respond to our questions.
01:41I think Australian authorities need to investigate this fully.
01:45This will be the fact that I'm interested in talking about
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