It seems like the whole travel industry is pursuing this course right now. Tighten supply, focus on the business travelers, and take steps to send the leisure travelers (if they still exist) to your competitor.

Granted, hotels can't as visibly tighten supply as airlines and rental car agencies can. But with deep-discount weekend rates getting less common, it makes me think they *can* reduce staff and services at off-peak times, even if they aren't physically taking rooms out of inventory. And compared to previous economic growth cycles, it does seem like there's less new property construction overall.

In other words, I don't get the sense that the big chains are aggressively seeking long-term growth. They're seeking short-term margins. Airlines are doing the same. Since there isn't that aggressive upstart competitor out there driving rapid share-of-market growth (e.g., no "Southwest effect" of the 80's and 90's), there's no reason for the big boys to get cut-throat on pricing in an attempt to woo each other's customers.

Another thing to keep in mind: the program devaluations are in effect major price increases that fly under the radar. If someone were to study it that way, hotel net costs and airline net costs are up a lot more than they appear on base rate alone vs. 10 years ago. (Of course, I had some HH stays in 2000 or so where, using that kind of math, I was getting paid by HH to occupy the room. So I can see where you don't want to go *too* far with it. )