An Orange County hotel

is being sued by Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office, accusing it of price-gouging customers in 2016 during Hurricane Matthew.

TALLAHASSEE — Eighteen months after Hurricane Matthew struck, Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office has sued an Orange County hotel, accusing it of price gouging customers trying to flee the storm.

The lawsuit was filed last month in Orange Circuit Court. It alleges that I-Drive Grand Resorts and Suites on South Kirkman Road charged 48 customers rates ranging from $96 to $170 for a one-night stay on Oct. 6, 2016. The average nightly rate the prior month, however, was $32.

Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency because of the storm, which skirted the Florida coast on Oct. 7, 2016.

A message left for Helen Kwok, the general manager for the hotel named in the lawsuit, was not returned.

Bondi’s office said it issued a subpoena to I-Drive Grand Resorts and Suites in December 2016, two months after the hurricane.

“We filed a lawsuit when we did not get a satisfactory response from the company after multiple attempts to resolve the issues over a lengthy period of time,” said Bondi spokeswoman Kiley Mason.

The lawsuit seeks $10,000 in fines, reimbursement of customers and additional fines of $1,000 per price-gouging incident.

Price gouging investigations also can take time, Mason added. Complaints leveled against hotels are difficult because they have rates that can vary widely depending on demand.

Florida price-gouging laws bar companies from selling gas, lumber, lodging or other must-have supplies at significantly higher prices during a state of emergency, which generally lasts 90 days after a storm has passed. Price gouging is defined as any quoted price that “grossly exceeds” average prices for the month before the storm hit.

Companies, though, can cite increased costs or market pressures to justify price hikes.

“Each investigation is different and the length of time depends on many factors, including, for example, how cooperative the business is in our investigation and what pricing factors need to considered, among other things,” Mason said.

Companies face a $1,000 fine for each instance of price-gouging, up to $25,000.

There were more than 2,700 complaints filed in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Matthew. One year later, more than 10,000 complaints were filed after Hurricane Irma hit the state, many of which are still being investigated.

Mason, though, said statistics on the amount of money recuperated in fines and fees after the hurricanes weren’t immediately available.

Some of the money can be recuperated and go to refund customers, she added, and the fines help pay for the price-gouging investigations.

More than 2,700 complaints were filed in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Matthew.