FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Crisis discounts at highend hotels?
View Single Post
Old Sep 22, 2008, 2:18 am
  #5  
Raffles
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: London
Programs: BA, VS, HH, IHG, MB, MR
Posts: 26,871
We were at Four Seasons Hampshire over the weekend. We had booked a B&B rate at £365 per night, but rebooked about 3 weeks ago when they introduced a new package at £365 per night which included breakfast and a £50 hotel credit. However, that is hardly a massive discount!

Four Seasons Florence is still showing Euro 855 for the 3 nights we are there in November for a Four Seasons Room, although I got a discount by booking through Virtuoso.

In general, if you are truly high end, you don't need to discount much. If you are the best in town, those people who want the best in town will go to you whatever your rates - unless the gap between you and the 2nd / 3rd best in town (and these are the guys who really suffer) gets too wide to justify.

It also depends on destination. According to one of the UK newspapers yesterday, UK bookings to the Maldives are sharply down at present. However, the Russians have discovered the islands this year and have taken up the slack (and more) left by the UK fall off.
Raffles is offline