I live 3 miles from the Reagan Airport Radisson. To score my 50,000 points in Radisson's current promo, I booked an $80 rate for last nightseveral weeks ago. Late Friday night, I and a couple of million Washingtonians lost power, and we've had several 100 degree days. Well, I do not ordinarily use my MR rooms, as I have a dog. But this was celarly different. Kennels were all booked up, so I moved the dog's crate to the basement, and enjoyed the hotel's pool, electricity, and air conditioning. I did make visits home every 6 hours or so to walk the dog and feed her. My power is back up, and all is returning to normal.
We live in Montgomery County, and our power went out at about 10:45 Friday night. It came back on at about 8:00 last night. With all the destruction from the storm (we saw an electric pole toppled over, among other things), I thought it would take longer. Guess PEPCO can forget about that rate increase they were planning on asking for.
I had similarly booked a room at the DCA Radisson for a mattress run which I had no intention of using. I ended up letting a friend who'd lost power using it and benefit from the A/C. During check-in there must have been a half dozen calls/walk-ins all inquiring about availability, but the hotel was completely sold out, my pre-booked room notwithstanding. So this turned out to be very fortuitous for my friend! Out of curiosity, I used the Kayak app to price out availability in the area. I was shocked to see a Motel 6 with available rooms at $560+!!
In some states, there are laws specifically prohibiting this behavior, known as "profiteering." Police in Upstate NY during ice storm of 1998 were not amused by retailers price gouging generators, etc.
Gee, that is a bit steep. But that may be the "rack" rate. Under the circumstances, it has the hallmarks of profiteering. Somehow, however, the thought of a Washington hotel extracting what it can when, every four years, there is an inauguration, is not so troubling. As for legality in Virginia, I suggest that Virginia is a strongly free market jurisdiction, and if even only a handful of jurisdictions permit this, Virginia would be among them.
During the RNC in Minnespolis in 2008, at least one downtown hotel posted a rack rate of about $3000 per night for an ordinary room in a rather nice hotel. A friend of mine stayed there over a weekend several months ago for $89 per night and most weekends they have rooms under about $150. Current prices during a normal business week are probably $200-300.
As long as said Motel 6 (and others) did not exceed their published innkeeper's rack rate, there's no repercussions. I just stayed in four different suites in Las Vegas and the least expected -- from the Best Western chain -- had a published $699 maximum rate. The other three were listed at just under $400. * Why stay in a Best Western one night? An ordinarily expensive weekend night is a lot cheaper when it's $80 with $100 back from a Best Rate Guarantee.
Great Idea. I just booked a night at the EWR Country Inn & Suites to take advantage of their pool for tomorrow's 100 degree day.
