As much as possible I try to avoid things that have variable pricing.
This includes hotel rooms. To me, there is a fixed cost to something and a fair profit. I’ll give you an example.
On my vacation I stayed at 4 different hotels since I visited different cities. The cheapest one was $200 and the most expensive one was $600 a night.
Where any of them worth their price? No. Yeah the cheapest one was pretty rough but it did the job. The nicest one had some nice features but I didn’t use them and they cost extra. None of them said they were a good value.
Now they were in Boston which is a popular tourist city. When I used to live in Chicago I understood the rooms in the city center started at $300 and this was some years ago. No doubt they are more expensive now. I stayed in one of those rooms and while it was nice, it wasn’t worth 1/10 which it cost to me.
Part of this may have been my upbringing. My middle class family stayed at Hotel6 and Best Western if it was available. I am used to low standards and I never do any of those fancy things like use an over chlorinated pool or dirty gym. Appearances are worthless to me. The easiest way to fool someone is to rely on appearances.
I understand that when business can get more money they will do so. I just don’t want to participate in it. Yes I know the arguments that they have to do risk management, seasonal demands and all kinds of other behind the scene expenses. I am not against profit. It just seems to me that you will have more demand if the prices are more in line with what average people can pay to stay in hotels.
Is there any hotel that I have stayed in that was too cheap? Yes. I once considered staying in a hotel in NYC that cost $90 a night but this was half the cost of other hotels so I wanted to see what they were leaving out. It was terrible. Cramped and filthy and I wouldn’t stay in it if you paid me. At the front desk there was a sign that said “No refunds”. If you see that sign, you probably don’t want to stay there.
If money is no object, then go ahead and pay the big bucks. I would rather spend money in other ways.