All 27 U.S. House members from Florida urged the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday to launch an investigation into fraudulent online hotel bookings.

 Led by Lois Frankel of West Palm Beach and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami, the Florida delegation said this form of fraud has hurt consumers and hotels for several years while pinching local economies that depend on tourist dollars.

 They said consumers are misled into making reservations through call centers and websites falsely purporting to be operated by hotels. The deceptive practices fool customers into falsely thinking they are booking directly with a prominent hotel chain and often lead to additional hidden fees, the members told the FTC.

 In some cases, no bookings are made at all, they said.

 The American Hotel & Lodging Association reported nearly 2.5 million reservations made through deceptive sites over the past year. As a result, guests of Florida hotels found themselves out hundreds of dollars for either a worthless reservation or one that delivered much less than promised online.

 “This especially affects the state of Florida, which is the top travel destination in the United States,” the 27 members wrote in a letter on Friday to Edith Ramirez, chairwoman of the FTC.