Monterey County District Attorney Dean D. Flippo announced today the settlement of a consumer protection case against Hyatt Corporation. The case was initiated by the District Attorney’s Consumer Protection Unit which received numerous complaints about the Monterey Hyatt’s substantial overbooking of rooms during last year’s 2005 MotoGP World Championship at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Without admitting wrongdoing, the defendant agreed to pay a civil penalty of $139,000 in addition to investigation costs of $10,000. Furthermore, Hyatt will spend an additional $50,000 to implement a new training program for all of its hotels in California and website changes to better inform the public about its reservation system. The judgment also orders Hyatt to abide by a permanent injunction to ensure compliance with various provisions of the Business and Professions Code dealing with the defendant’s hotel business.

The complaint alleges that despite the fact that the Monterey Hyatt was severely overbooked for the 2005 race event, it continued to accept reservations from consumers and later failed to notify consumers in a timely manner that there were no rooms available for their arrival. It also alleges that some consumers were asked to stay at the Hyatt in San Jose, which would result in a long commute for race participants expecting to stay in Monterey. The complaint did not allege, nor did the investigation find, that Hyatt had engaged in any type of “price gouging” which was the subject of some speculation on the internet and other media sources. The company cooperated in the investigation and will enforce new and existing policies to avoid such conduct in the future.