BeatCal

Many people from the SW and Texas were evacuated during the hurricanes these past two years. Marriott was founded by some devote Morman'/Christians. They would be turning over in the grave.

Instead of discounting rates for those (the Ritz in Atlanta did on the Manager's say), many actually charged higher rates.

For shame Marriott

Srisarin

Marriott Corp doesn't set the individual hotel rates as you imply/state - that's individually done by each hotel.
If you want to hold the individual hotels to shame then I would support that type of post.

Newman

Ditto to the above.
Furthermore, Marriott is a publicly traded (MAR) company. Like any other publicly traded and publicly owned business, Marriott's primary responsibility is to maximize profits for its shareholders.
If you don't like the price that a Marriott-owned hotel is charging in Atlanta or any other city, you are free to stay elsewhere.

You need to get a life.

Newman

SkiAdcock

Cite for the properties that charged more? Also, did you mean to say two years?

Cheers.

JackE

How much higher?

5%? 10%? 200%? 10,000%?

SkiAdcock

I think it's a bit different when you're dealing with something like a hurricane. There are anti-gouging laws that are in place (although one tends to think of them more w/ gas, lumber, water). There was a different hotel in the Houston area (not Marriott) that did try to do a gouge thing & the chain HQ suggested the individual property rethink it/came down on them, given the humanitarian situation. They didn't say to give away the rooms for free or even necessarily the same rate, but not to do the gouging.

However, the OP's comment re: Marriott engaging in gouging is a bit vague, both in terms of # of properties & timelines. I think we'd need more info before we could determine if there was any price-gouging.

Cheers.

DeltaWings

I can't say for sure, but there are a ton of Category 1 hotels in Texas, particularly in the areas affected by Harvey. Was that always the case, or did they reduce the category rate to assist Rewards members?

jbeans

Source?

writerguyfl

I think you're correct with regard to the applicability of price gouging laws and hotel. I can't comment on Texas, but here in Florida the price gouging laws only apply to essential commodities. These are two pertinent statements:
Source: http://myfloridalegal.com/pages.nsf/...256F03006AA2C5

Although I'm not a lawyer, I have played one on TV (seriously). But I don't think that a hotel room would be considered an essential commodity because of the existence of government-run shelters. More specifically, Florida statutes use the term "dwelling unit" for long-term residences and "transient public lodging" for hotels/motels.

Regardless, price gouging laws only apply to the areas having the emergency. They wouldn't apply to a hotel in Atlanta.

That said, if anyone feels they are being gouged, contact the State Attorney General.

catocony

Aren't the max rack rates posted in most rooms on the door somewhere? Those rates are usually far, far higher than the usual rates. There's also a wide variety of rates paid for the same room in the same hotel.

JBord

Yeah, I think it would be difficult to prove any kind of price gouging as long as their under the rack rates. Every rate we all see is technically a "discounted" rate, and the idea is that as the hotel capacity is filled, they move closer to the rack rate (not always true in practice).

That said, there's a moral side to it as well, when there's a natural disaster. They could still make money at the discounted rates, while helping people survive the hurricane. It's ultimately better for the brand and the company then making a few extra $ for a couple weeks. But I don't see any proof that they did anything other than that in this case anyway.

Kacee

Room rates are typically set by revenue management software, which uses an algorithm for which demand is the key input. So prices will go up in high demand situation without any "intent" on the part of management at all.

Might as well chastise Marriott for taking advantage of OpenWorld or Dreamforce to charge a grand a night in SF.

LoganFlyer

Proof? Details? Even one example? I'm assuming this is a troll post until I see something specific.

RogerD408

Wouldn't a hotel room be a "dwelling unit"? I do believe they are covered by this law.

I was looking for a place to escape and found an Extended Stay asking over $500/night! Now this may very well be a rack rate, but I've never seen one worth that. Fortunately Irma went far enough west that returning home was a safe choice.

catocony

I use one variable to track the health of the US tech industry - hotel rates and customer service levels in Bay Area hotels.

When tech is in a down cycle, rooms get relatively cheap (under $175 or so for full service properties), they actually provide a decent level of customer service and actually seem glad to have you staying there.

When it's a boom time, 50 year old Fairfield Inns charge $225 and you're lucky if they don't hand you your key and tell you to go F-yourself when you check in.