5 tips for avoiding the latest hotel scam | cnn.com

Jack Taras and his friends thought they would be checking in at the Occidental Grand Hotel on the Dominican Republic's postcard-perfect Eastern shore for spring break. But when Taras, a 19-year-old sophomore from Providence College, arrived at the resort, he was greeted with the hotel industry's latest trick: he was walked down. "They were sent to a hotel that wasn't as nice," says his father, John Taras.