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Old 12-01-2017, 02:33 PM
 
2,895 posts, read 5,104,185 times
Reputation: 3663

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Quote:
Originally Posted by karen_in_nh_2012 View Post
Oh, and of course I understand the law of supply and demand. What I find really odd is that a hotel like the JW Marriott is $254/night (regular price, not my conference rate) but just down the block the Westin is charging $400+. In terms of location, rooms (from photos), amenities, etc., they are not very different from each other.
The Westin website has rooms for $226 in mid-March so their prices are not consistently higher than The JW Marriott down the street.

Here's my snarky comment: I do find strange how you claim to understand supply and demand yet you were still puzzled enough to come here and complain about dynamic pricing, which is extremely prevalent in the travel industry (especially airlines and hotels). Westin thinks they'll easily fill the hotel on your dates so they bump up the prices in order to make more money. The guy in charge of capacity would lose his job if he didn't do that.

Another snarky comment: I hate people who just show up at their conference session and bail right after they're done. You get to benefit from others' comments but you don't reciprocate throughout the whole 2-4 days?
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Old 12-01-2017, 02:52 PM
 
6,039 posts, read 6,013,867 times
Reputation: 16753
Quote:
Originally Posted by karen_in_nh_2012 View Post

To clarify, the JW Marriott is actually the conference hotel; the conference rate is $164/night plus 17% tax, which will mean a total of ~$192/night. On a google map, the Westin Indianapolis looked like it was nearby and it was listed at $115/night. That was clearly a gigantic mistake, as when I went to the hotel's site it came up at $400+/night. That's the one I did this to!
Wait, am I reading this right...you saw the $115 price on a third-party travel type website but the hotel's own website showed $400? Or was it just a Google pop-up type thing?

Third party sites often used to offer really great rates compared to the hotel's own website, but in my experience that gap has all but disappeared.
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Old 12-01-2017, 03:17 PM
 
Location: Florida
3,128 posts, read 2,217,038 times
Reputation: 9156
Quote:
Originally Posted by SoCal25 View Post
It's not just a place to sleep, it's some place to sleep that is clean, safe and convenient to the airport and the place you need to be. I'd rather plunk the $400 to be in the same building as a conference than $150 to be six miles away, especially in cities where driving and parking are a hassle.
When I traveled for business I always preferred to stay in the same hotel as the conference. Way too much of a hassle with traffic in most larger cities. Call a cab for dinner, get a cab back to the conference hotel, easy peasy. It ain’t always about the money my friend.
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Old 12-01-2017, 03:25 PM
 
9,860 posts, read 13,979,789 times
Reputation: 21673
Quote:
Originally Posted by karen_in_nh_2012 View Post

I do want to say that I did not mean to insult anyone who routinely spends $400+ of their own money for one night in a hotel
You didn't mean to insult anyone? Then what did you mean by saying anyone who did it ever couldn't possibly be in their right mind? Calling people crazy isn't meant to insult?


Quote:
Originally Posted by karen_in_nh_2012 View Post

That's the only thing I can think of as I try to understand how anyone in their right mind would spend $400/night on a place to SLEEP.
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Old 12-01-2017, 03:29 PM
 
46,750 posts, read 25,661,546 times
Reputation: 29270
Quote:
Originally Posted by Harpaint View Post
I haven't had a hotel charge extra for internet in years! Even most motels have free internet now.
That actually worked from the bottom up - motels went with free Internet early, but higher-end hotels (to be exact, hotels frequented by people with an expense account) would still charge.
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Old 12-01-2017, 03:30 PM
 
15,630 posts, read 26,105,565 times
Reputation: 30902
Years ago, my husband traveled for business. One of his stops was in Los Angeles. They loved to put him into a high-end beautiful expensive hotel at around 250 a night -- this was about 25 years ago. That’s where the boss liked to stay. He wanted everyone to stay there.

My husband didn’t like it. Their cable service was terrible. He preferred to stay at the local Travelers Inn, with a really nice cable package and no other amenities. There was a number of reasons why he got laid off, but we really think him blowing it with the upper management over this issue. Because if he could stay in the Travelers Inn, why couldn’t the bosses stay in the Travelers Inn. One his bosses a couple levels above him could not get over this...we really think this is one of the reasons he got fired.

But the thing is, when the company is footing the bill, the company doesn’t really care how much it costs. They say they do, but somewhere along the line there are kickbacks and perks and points and things, and it all evens out in the end and everybody’s happy. That might be what you’re experiencing if they’re giving you flak, just take the $400 room. There’s probably some sort of a kickback scam going on where if you take the $400 room, it’s actually only cost them $200 because they’re putting in other people or something. But that’s how life works now.
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Old 12-01-2017, 04:02 PM
 
4,039 posts, read 4,911,551 times
Reputation: 4772
That's falls right in March Madness. Indiana is a big basketball state and there will probably be some games in Indy.
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Old 12-01-2017, 04:46 PM
 
Location: Juneau, AK + Puna, HI
10,403 posts, read 7,488,979 times
Reputation: 15709
Spent close to that at the Lord Jeffery Inn at Amherst once in October. We were just visiting the campus for a day and night, with no reservations elsewhere or a rent a car.

The cost was hard to swallow, but the convenience due to its location was certainly worth a great deal. Heard later that it's really tough to get a room there in the peak season. We just "lucked" out with a last minute cancellation opening up a room.
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Old 12-01-2017, 04:59 PM
 
317 posts, read 647,297 times
Reputation: 1069
Event rate for a conference I am attending was around $200. Rack rate was over $300. On a site where you buy without knowing exactly which hotel you are getting until you purchase (you do see reviews and approximate location), I managed to get one of the event hotels for $100. They were selling rooms at cut rate out the back door while charging a premium with the supposedly discounted event rates. It's a game. Hunt around and be flexible. Reviews help.
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Old 12-01-2017, 05:14 PM
 
6,459 posts, read 4,851,084 times
Reputation: 7866
A guy I know gladly pays this. And then will do it again for dinner. I know this, because he once got drunk at dinner in San Francisco and emailed me from the expensive hotel, telling me what a buffoon I was for not enjoying the finer things in life.

I don't know about you, but personally I can think of many other things I'd like to do with $800 than spend it on one meal and one nights sleep. I don't even mind sleeping in my car.

For many years I worked a job which required travel (this was up until last year). We stayed in all kinds of places, from expensive to small inns to EconoLodge. I can tell you that every single expensive "name brand" hotel charged at least $10 per night for internet. Per NIGHT. Now I'm sure the boss was not paying the advertised $350/night as they'd get a block of rooms for us, but it wasn't a $60 EconLodge package either. I needed internet for the job I was doing so I'd have to pay to get it turned on than submit it for reimbursement which would take a couple more weeks to get. Not fun when you're broke.

At the expensive hotels I had graduation parties that went on all night and required multiple phone calls to security to get them to shut up. They then offered to move me - gee why don't you move the people who won't stop making noise? They seem to be drunk - can I suggest the pool? Doors slam all night and you better hope you're not near the damn ice machine.

I had 2 others that had issues with the shower - one wouldn't work at all, one didn't have hot water. The sink did but not the shower. Yes they will fix it - but when you are leaving the room at 5am it doesn't much matter.

OTOH every single "cheap" place I've stayed at for work and personal use in the the past 10 years has had free WiFi. There isn't typically a hallway so you don't have the foot traffic. The ice machine is usually in some out of the way place. And I never had a shower issue either. Sure, they aren't as fancy. But it's just a place to sleep.

My preference is Super 8.
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