A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Minneapolis: DL DM charter 2.3MM
Programs: A3*Gold, SPG Plat, HyattDiamond, MarriottPP, LHW exAccess, ICI, Raffles Amb, NW PE MM, TWA Gold MM
Posts: 102,617
The hotels might be setting these rates high now because they don't know how full the property will be several months in the future. They could be planning to lower these rates in at some point in the future if the hotel doesn't seem to be so full. The merger might make it harder than usual to predict future occupancy for revenue management purposes. Why should the hotel commit to reservations under $50 now when they might be able to fill the property with the last few rooms at rack rate in several months.
BTW, it might be interesting to compare Marriott's legacy policy on this to what Starwood has been doing regarding such rates. My impression from a few Starwood employee comments is that they would book their special courtesy employee rates much closer to their proposed arrival rates and get rates that reflect the hotel's costs for housekeeping, utilities, etc. and not much else, so indeed the rates were very low, IIRC depending of course on either the hotel's category or some other measure of how expensive the place is. I'm not sure how friends and family were treated under this Starwood program for employees.
Last edited by bdschobel; May 13, 2018 at 10:21 am
Reason: removed rate code