Don't you just hate when your vacation plans get thrown out the window? One of the fears of mine is that my reservations will be canceled before a big trip. Apparently it's not unfounded. Tourists found their vacation plans in jeopardy after reservations at a destination were deemed illegal.
U.S. tourists won't be able to continue with their bookings to Cuba via Expedia Group websites. A court ruled that it is illegal to book at property seized during the Cuban Revolution. The federal court ordered both Expedia and Hotels.com to pay $30 million to one American-Cuban. They had fled the country when Fidel Castro seized power in the 1950s.
That American-Cuban refugee was Mario Echevarría. He sued the travel companies in court. As such, Expedia and other booking sites removed bookings for hotels on Cayo Coco island in Cuba. Courts found that it is illegal to promote or sell bookings to these hotels since the land originally belonged to Echevarría.
The court case was possible thanks to the 1996 Helms-Burton Act. It allowed Americans to sue companies profiteering off trafficked properties in Cuba. Initially, a jury found the reservations company owed $9.95 million. But they tripled the amount after Expedia refused to stop promoting the hotels online.
Reservations Companies Forced To Pay
This comes after several years of legal back and forth. Echevarría reached out to the reservations company in 2019, hinting he would take things to court. Fortunately, there's no current reservations pending for the island from Expedia. But it's unknown if it is the same with other companies. Echevarría's attorney Andrés Rivero spoke out about the victory, saying, "We are proud to have played a role in securing justice under a law that had never before been tested before a jury."
Meanwhile, one of the reservation companies, Expedia, expressed disappointment.
"We are disappointed in the jury's verdict, which we do not believe was supported by the law or evidence," an Expedia spokesperson told The Daily Mail. "We believe the court was correct to decline immediate entry of judgment and look forward to the court's consideration of the legal sufficiency of the evidence presented to the jury."
It's a victory for the family. Echeverría left Cuba in 1967 for Sapin. He then settled in America, currently living in Miami.
"I thought that the triumph of the Revolution would bring democracy to Cuba," Echeverría said. "I didn't know who Fidel Castro was."
