Beware of multiple nights reservation rates
 

I have recently found 2 outrageous examples of hyatt.com pricing multi night stays at higher rates throughout the stay when only the first night is higher.
Ex.: NYGH May 16-21, 2013 shows a rate of $419 a night for the lowest Hyatt rate. However, if you book May 16 for one night the rate is $419. Then May 17-21 is $299 each night.
I have found a similar situation in Cologne. The first night is 189 euros and the second 171 euros if booked separately. However if you book the 2 nights together, it shows 189 euros both nights.
Unfortunately, this means that to get the best rate you must check all combinations of rates when making a multi night reservation.
IMHO this belies the hyatt claim of guaranteed best rate.

It's not just Hyatt. I've seen that with other hotel chains. And rental car companies. I had the same issue with Hertz recently on a Wed-Sat booking. Wed-Thur was expensive, Thur-Sat was cheap. If one booking, all days were at the higher Wed-Thur rate.

+1. Happens all the time with all websites. You need to check one by one.

In my case of booking the HR Cologne, I found the first night to be the lowest when looking at booking a weekend stay. The two nights together were the highest. The pricing was dynamic and it changed more than once during the couple of hours I was looking at it. I was able to wait the system out until it settled down and then booked a couple of single night stays to complete the weekend I was booking.

Welcome to the world of yield management... Happens all over the place...

Just had the same experience with booking Grand Champions in Indian Wells over Memorial Weekend. I always check rates up until the last moment to see if there is something better and found an impressively low rate for the last day of our four night stay. When I tried to book it all together, it gave me the higher rate. I called GP and they booked it with the lower rate for the one night! Also found a lower breakfast included rate for the other three nights at $20 cheaper than our originally booked rate.

It's always good to check individual nights just like it's good to check component one-ways. This is particularly important when the hotel is hosting conventions or meetings, especially when they are trying to gouge whoever is going to the meetings. I remember once with a Hilton the rate for a midweek stay was at least double the rate per night of pretty much any other date combination I entered for that week, and I found out that it corresponded precisely to the dates of some law-related conference. You just never know when yield management is kicking in.

I have seen this a lot with Hyatt, but Hilton used to show variable rates for a stay. I'm not sure about Hilton now with the new website.

This is similar to buying two plane tickets on the same PNR. Both will price the same, and on the higher fare if only one ticket is available at the lower cost. The same for award tickets, at least on DL.

New sites shows a asterisk that says rate change during stay. I priced out something next week from $150 to 600.