About 6% of U.S. travelers -- 15 million people -- are tricked each year into thinking they are booking a room directly through a hotel website but instead are making reservations through a "rogue" third-party site.
That is one of the findings of a survey by the American Hotel & Lodging Assn., which has been warning travelers to be on the lookout for online hotel-booking scams.
"These findings clearly show that online hotel-booking scams have eroded consumer confidence among third-party vendors," said Katherine Lugar, president and chief executive of the lodging association.
The survey of more than 1,000 adults found that 6% of respondents said they have made hotel reservations thinking they were booking directly with a hotel, but later discovered they had logged into a third-party site.