Hotel Research Firm Wins STR.com Domain Name

Firm wins three letter domain name through arbitration.

Smith Travel Research, Inc, which provides hotel benchmarking services, has won the three letter domain name STR.com at arbitration.

In the decision by a National Arbitration Forum panelist, the respondent was found to have registered the domain in bad faith and have no legitimate interests in the domain.

The respondent used the domain name for a travel web site, earning referral fees for sending traffic to travel sites. The logo at the top of the site reads “STR.com Search for Travels & Reservations / Book hotels online”. Many of the pages of the site are not complete and say development will be finished in Spring 2009.

The respondent argued that the complainant merely provides research to the hotel industry, whereas STR.com provides hotel bookings to consumers. The arbitrator didn’t buy it, and suggested that the domain was registered to specifically target Smith Travel Research.

Smith Travel Research’s web site is STRGlobal.com.

Read the arbitrator’s decision here.