Originally Posted by
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.
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.