In the past two days, I have experienced the greed of hotels that are trying to exploit business travelers for events.
Last night a friend of mine was In NYC from India and he had a rate of over $400 a night for the same hotel I was staying at a rate of $199. I booked mine at the last minute the day before. When I checked to get him the rate, it had jumped to over $500. That one is not too bad since there were two significant events in town, and I must have lucked upon a great rate.
Toda,y however, I attempted to change my hotel for DMA in Chicago. I wanted to add an extra day since I am coming in a day earlier to participate in the Guru sessions. My original rate was $208 per night, but when I added the extra day, the daily rate increased from a reasonable $208 per night to an exorbitant $1,299 per night for an Aloft hotel, which is one of the budget lines of Starwood.
There must be a data problem. I immediately canceled the whole stay and booked at the Westin for slightly more than the original rate. But what if I were willing to pay that jacked-up rate? Well, I would not stay at the Aloft… for the price of the closet-style room, I could get a suite at the Four Seasons for about the same rate as the budget – it would be a no-brainer where I would stay.
These are the frustrating issues that cost companies a significant amount of business.
