I agree.

Spent a few days in Japan last month, and when planning the trip 2 months before that, prices were all over the map, and when I say that, they ranged from definitely a bit above normal to 2-3x normal.

After I returned, I happened to watch one of those YouTube walkthrough videos of Osaka at night which was done recently. They walked by the Conrad Osaka, and to my surprise only the top two floors had any lights on - at least for the side that was in the video. The other floors were completely dark. I mentioned this elsewhere and a recent guest said that they understood some of the hotel was indeed shut and they were having issues with water pressure/heat because of it.

Here in the states, shutting down entire floors during covid was a common response to save on expenses. Indeed, I was a regular at one place that went down to two floors, and they only opened the second to keep spacing between occupied guest rooms with a 48-hour break between occupants as well.

I wonder if - for some hotels - they aren't seeing the traffic to justify opening more floors, and/or they can't get enough staff to provide the service levels expected. With demand rising and capacity limited, any business person is going to raise rates to match market demand.

Note, I was looking at western hotel brands for this visit. Perhaps this won't apply to local brands supporting intra-country travel by residents.