Originally Posted by
bigmerv
i have never understood the rates at this property, which seems to operate a very dramatic dynamic pricing policy. If you do a search for a room, literally one day difference either way can make a big difference in price for the entire stay.
Just as an example, take a 14 night stay in a partial ocean-view room:
arrival on 15 Feb gives a rate of $779,
16 Feb = $699,
18 Feb is back to $779,
19 Feb drops to $599
24 Feb is even lower at $499
28 Feb back to $599.
These prices apply to every night of the stay, so arriving on 19 Feb rather than 18 Feb would save $2520 for essentially the same stay in the same room. When it comes to suites, the price differential is even larger (as much as $1500 savings per night for some dates).
Anyone have any idea what is going on here? The prices are not blended rates, and I doubt it can be supply and demand as the price on the arrival date applies to every night of the whole stay.
I have never noticed this at any other hotel, most of which have clear peak, off-peak and shoulder seasons, (and specials of course). Maybe it exists but the differences are more subtle?
I can only presume that the daily variations do in fact make a large difference in terms of occupancy. Let's assume that 18 Feb is part of a school holiday in which every school in the New York Area is off (for those of you unfamiliar with the dynamic, a large number of New York families tend to vacation in Palm Beach). Thus, the hotel runs close to capacity on the Thus-Sat of that long weekend, but begins to clear out on Sunday.
I can't understand why it would affect the whole stay, and not just fluctuate on a daily basis. Nevertheless, I'm not going to complain too much about $350 a night the week before Christmas.