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The phrase I'd use is that a hotel has become a very poor value in my eyes. I could come up with a very righteous rant about my recent stay at the Yosemite Valley Lodge with a summary of 'Aramark knows they have a captive audience so they absolutely do not care at all about your guest experience because there will always be someone else willing to buy what they're selling' (they're the sole concessionaire within a 60 minute drive of Yosemite's main valley area) and you're talking rooms with deferred maintenance issues including inoperable windows, no attempt to install even a mini-split AC system and rooms that were still 84F at 5:00am as a result.
It's Yosemite Valley and we knew about the no AC issue going in but we didn't expect that the lack of air flow that was the fault of Aramark would make it that bad.
I'm not sure if you saw earlier in the thread about the big-name national brand hotel on July 4th in Atlanta where NO rooms had working A/C but the desk clerk did point out that the hallways had air.
Sort of the opposite of the Millennium Hotel in Scottsdale AZ I stayed at a long time ago where the air worked in the room but it was like a hundred degrees in the hallways.
I think people need to remember who screwed them on prices or "service" when the rebound from the pandemic sort-of ending is over. It's simply not acceptable. Places think they are above being accountable and it will come back to bite them in the rear. Hotel managers used to answer the negative reviews on Google, Trip Advisor, booking sites, etc with an apology and a promise to try to do better in the future. Most have now given up and simply ignore the horror story reviews.
Price gouging refers to when a business takes advantage of people by charging exorbitant insane prices.
Examples using a generic date of Monday Sept. 20th:
Asheville NC - Cambria at $276 with tax; Kimpton at $335 with tax
Chattanooga - Spring Hills Suites at $269 with tax; DoubleTree at $219 with tax
These hotels are twice what they were not that long ago. A Westin we stayed at for $98/night (pre-tax) in a middle/large midwestern city in early June is now $189 pre-tax and it is an older property with mixed reviews, not an elite example of that chain by any stretch.
That's a simple supply and demand concept. It's a free market concept that has elevated billions of people out of poverty.
We stay off of the strip in Vegas at a Hampton Inn and can get some pretty reasonable discount rates below $125 midweek.
We looked at mid-October and on a weekend the Raiders are playing at home and the room jumps to $600 a night.
While they had to offer pretty great room rates before as they were off of the strip and out of the way, they are now within walking distance to the new stadium. The new stadium was a win, win for them and now they call their own prices based on demand.
It's certainly a case of "YMMV" and depends on what you're looking for and how much effort to put in.
We just stayed a week in San Diego at the Marriott Marquis, high floor, harbor view, king with taxes, fees, booked directly on their website and found it to be less than we have paid previously. Plus they kicked in jet ski rental (fun dodging the big boats!) and a daily food credit and which effectively negated the dreaded resort fee.
In addition, we also had SWA reward points available and we found n/s flights from MDW-SAN for about 9200 pts/pp each way....overall it was a great bargain, IMHO.
Because of the central location and ease of access to all activities, we do not feel we were gouged, fleeced, bamboozled or otherwise taken advantage of. Turned out to be a great trip too!
Glad to hear you didn't get ripped off like millions of others ARE no matter how much due diligence they put in to their shopping. Lots of hotel reviews like THIS about supposed to be brand-name hotels and they are not shy about charging ridiculously...
Dirtiest, smelliest, most disgusting hotel I have ever stayed at in my 50 years of traveling!!!
The air conditioning didnt work in the room, the room wasnt real clean, beds seemed old and sagged, didn't have towels available for the rooms, ice machine didnt work, and hallways were hot and dirty. Staff wasn't very friendly either.
The hotel was dirty inside and out. No breakfast. Room very very hot. Dirty towels and couldn’t get more. No one would respond to our problems. Never anyone at the front desk. Ice machine broken. In room coffee pot has old coffee in it. No help from anyone at the hotel.
They gave me someone elses room then in the 2nd room there was no sheets on the bed and i had to make my own bed and to top it off the people who work there were high on drugs and rude! Awful experience!
Hotel prices in Va. Beach/Norfolk, VA , over the top - $300-$400.00 a night! Usually travel there $100.00 a night with Government rate. Highest hotel prices I have seen ever. Cannot travel now.
Hotel prices in Va. Beach/Norfolk, VA , over the top - $300-$400.00 a night! Usually travel there $100.00 a night with Government rate. Highest hotel prices I have seen ever. Cannot travel now.
And there will be lemmings nodding like little bobble-heads saying "uh... yeah.... I guess 400 a night for a Hampton or Holiday Inn is o.k. I guess, sure I'll pay it." And the next week that room will go up to 450.
If everybody would keep their pants on and stay put for a few weeks, the prices on gasoline and hotel rooms would drop noticeably.
Congrats on not supporting the price gouging mania.
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