Village of Bedford Park

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendants-online travel agencies’ motions for summary judgment in action by plaintiffs-13 municipalities, alleging that defendants owed them tax revenue as required by plaintiffs’ municipal ordinances for hotel rooms rented by defendants’ customers, under circumstances where hotel remitted tax to plaintiffs based on lower rate for hotel room that defendants had negotiated with hotel, while defendants retained remaining portion of tax that they had received from their customers that was based on higher room rate that customers had paid to defendants. None of applicable municipal ordinances placed duty on defendants to collect or remit taxes, since they were not “owners, operators or managers” of hotel or hotel rooms rented by their customers. Moreover, defendants were mere intermediaries that essentially took reservations from customers and did not either pre-pay hotel for rooms offered by defendants or bear any loss if rooms were not reserved.