Originally Posted by pinniped

I've never quite understood it myself - the last thing I'd want to do is fly a long way to a tropical island and then spend whole days next to a hotel pool. Don't get me wrong - I love a good hotel pool - but it's always a quick dip in the morning or evening, before or after going and doing something interesting during the day.

But someone else hit it upthread: these high prices are the hotel's profit-maximizing point. Like so many other overpriced services in a hotel, they get enough people there on expense accounts for whom the price doesn't matter. Just like they're better off selling few $50 breakfasts than a bunch of $5 breakfasts, they're better off selling a few $700 cabanas than a whole bunch of $40 cabanas. The $700 renter also probably orders bottle service (or lots of drinks, anyway), so even comparing to the drink-minimum model, they come out ahead.

The one time I was at the Grand Wailea, there was a huge doctor's convention there. I bet the cabanas were rented, the Dom was flowing, and the hotel was happy.

The individual paying-for-it-yourself person at the hotel is not the target audience for many of these things.