Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2007-11-22 23:25:32 - Graham Ellis
Lisa forwarded me an email describing how travelers are booking their hotel rooms well in advance, then canceling them at the last week or so if they see a special deal or suspect one from a major chain, and rebooking at the lower price. The article went on to say how the bigger hotel chains are less worried than the smaller independents, who resent the practice.
There is a need for differential pricing at times - to fill facilities in the lower season / quiet times of day, and to maximize revenue at other times so that the books as a whole balance or make an acceptable level of profit. But my experience of many systems is that they create anomalies, they get out of hand .... and they should only be set up with extreme care. Otherwise, they end up "turning off" the customer, cause the provider to give a lower quality service to his cheaper customers, and leave the full price payers feeling very hard done by.
I've no big solution to offer. I can offer a principle which we apply that says "keep it simple, consistent, fair and easily justified" but my goodness - even in our business - there are times that it's hard to stick to your guns on such an approach.