I don’t know is this is IMHO material or belongs in MPSIMS.
21 years ago, in the week of 9/11 we had to drive 300 miles each way to pick up family who had been stranded when their plane was rerouted and grounded during the attacks.
They were staying at a hotel, first night paid by the airline, but then paying $299/night for what would be a $75 room in normal times. I booked a $75 room on the hotel chain’s website and they moved to it. The rooms were identical.
We planned to drive back and forth in one day. But we got into an accident and didn’t arrive until 7pm. We tried to get a room at the same hotel, and were quoted $299. I went to the pay phone in the lobby and called the 800 number, got a reservation at $75, went back to the front desk and checked in.
I thought these days were behind us, but an almost identical thing happened a week ago. I was trying to drive 10 hours in one day, but because of weather and traffic after ten hours I still had three hours to go. For safety reasons I decided to call it a night and pulled into a Marriott that I had been to many times on business travel. Parking lot was mostly empty.
Sure enough they quoted me $499. I booked on my phone on the Marriott website for $176.
Are there people who would just pay the outrageous quoted rate, even in this day and age?
I wouldn’t call it a quirk , exactly - it’s a deliberate tactic to charge people more if they are willing to pay more. And there absolutely are people who would pay the outrageous rate you get if you just walk up to the desk for a variety of reasons - although most of the people who would are unaware that they can get a lower rate by calling on the phone, even though that has been a thing since hotels had payphones in the lobby.
I once had the same thing happen to me. Clerk at the check in counter refused to honour an advertised room rate. I walked over to the house phone and called the hotel’s 800 number. Walked back to the check in counter with new reservation number in hand. Clerk turned several shades of red an was so furious she could barely speak. I enjoyed that moment.
Hotels are in the business of extracting as much money from your wallet as possible. Most are part of very large for-profit corporations. They tack on newly-invented fees to the room just because they can. I always book online or by phone to get the lowest room rate possible. Walk-ins don’t care about that as much as I do.
If you walk in and ask for a room many hotels will charge you the “rack rate”, which is the highest price they charge for a given room. Some will adjust the rate based on occupancy and other factors but some just charge rack rate to walk-ins. You’re always better off booking online instead of walking in without a reservation. We’ve reserved rooms from the parking lot many times.
I have had similar encounters when I should have received an upgrade as an elite member of the hotel’s loyalty program and been told that there are no upgraded rooms available. A quick look at the web site made them see that there were available rooms.
You will never, ever get the best price as a walk in at a hotel/motel. Not even with AAA or other discounts. And the difference between the price at the desk and an internet/telephone reservation can be quite ridiculous.
One might think that low occupancy would affect this but it doesn’t.
A few weeks ago I was on my way back from Wyoming and found myself in De Moines and badly in need of sleepage. I went into a hotel that had very few cars in the lot. Desk clerk quoted $160. I went on line (using their free Wi-Fi btw) and found it for $79! When I pointed that out to the clerk she said She couldn’t give it to me at that price I would have to actually make the reservation on line. How absurd.
Hmmm. In our business we have a concept of insult pricing.
Say you sell something that is rarely purchased in a grocery store (e.g. a 5-pack of Bic Stics). The wholesale might be $1.00 and you could buy it at Office Max or Walmart for $1.99. In the grocery store you’d sell almost exactly as many at $4.99 as you would at $2.99, namely not very many, just those who need it and don’t want to make another stop. But we’d never price it at $4.99 because that would damage the whole “brand”.
I thought the same thing might apply to hotel chains, but with the locations mostly owned by investors, they’d happily pocket the extra $300 even if it does damage the Marriott or Hilton brand.
I understand this reasoning. I’ve been in stores and realized an item I needed was way overpriced but it wasn’t worth my time to go elsewhere just to save two or three dollars on one item.
And I see this a lot in grocery stores. They have great prices except for certain items (such as your example, pens) and the price will be insanely high.
If we are talking about an actual supermarket chain, that company will be damaged if people decide to stop shopping at Wegman’s because “ if they charge $4.99 for a $1.99 package of pens, who knows where else they’re ripping me off “. But even if I never stay in a Holiday Inn again because the one in Rochester charged me $300 as a walk-in, chances are that one in Rochester didn’t lose any business. If I walk in asking for a room, I most likely wasn’t planning to stay there. Something unexpected happened - and that means I probably will not be a repeat customer .
And I have noticed that folks tend to be more apt to leave a review when they are pissed about something than when they are pleased with something.
But pricing isn’t usually what people bitch about on sites like aTrip Adviser. Poor service, unsanitary conditions, the place being old/run down, and noisy guests are the biggest complaints.
I could be wrong, but I suspect there’s not a lot of overlap between people who don’t know to call the 800 number or make an online reservation (even if you’re already in the parking lot) and people who leave/ read Trip Advisor reviews
I saw a 2 pack of 9 volt batteries for $15 at a local grocery store. And they were off-brand, not a well known manufacturer of batteries: Essential Everyday. They were hanging like right over the start of the checkout belt, probably to make then harder to steal which is tempting just on principle. Different store but like this:
We have two dogs and the one time we tried to book a room online with Holiday Inn Express, the room for my wife and I was $100. Not bad. We asked if they were dog friendly. Sure, they said; $100 per dog per night. You mean each of my pups gets her own room? I asked, just before hanging up the phone.
Batteries seem to be bad in particular, especially if you’re looking for button-cell batteries. I buy all my batteries online because I can get like a 10-pack of button cells for what one or two cost at the brick & mortars.