The idea of increasing prices according to occupancy will be no news to you. Indeed some OTAs will penalise you with decreased visibility as a result of having repeated dates of ‘No Availability,’ so many hoteliers post massively inflated rates for dates they’re close to capacity, to dissuade guests from booking, at the same time as not jeopardising their ranking on their primary booking sources.

I remember a colleague once told me he’d massively inflated the rate for one of his rooms for precisely this reason, but it still got booked. We’re talking about a rate increase of about 1000% so he was thrown – what would the guest think? Sure they’d have a lovely suite in a gorgeous boutique hotel, but they’d paid enough for an uber-chic beachfront villa! He rallied around and arranged an upgrade for them – beachfront with a private pool on the roof and a jacuzzi on the bedroom balcony overlooking the ocean. They could spend three nights of the seven nights they’d booked at another prime location of the other side of the island – breaking their stay and optimising their trip (or so he thought…) Complimentary airport transfers were put in place, everything…

When the guests arrived they didn’t want to leave the original hotel – they loved their suite, they were tired from an extended work project and just wanted to lounge around, order room service, and relax…

The offer of a temporary relocation met with ‘Thanks, but no thanks…’ they said – somewhat bemused…

They must have been okay with the price they’d paid – the same price had been offered on all OTAs for those dates so maybe it didn’t seem overly extravagant to them (as presumably they’d only checked for the dates they wanted – and it was a last minute booking…)

A week of great service, judicious use of complimentary meals and drinks, and the guests felt both refreshed and revitalised…

Rather than feeling that they’d been ripped off and posting negative reviews they were gushing with thanks, which just goes to show the power of exemplary customer service…

Compared to risking being penalised by OTAs for posting ‘No Availability,’ in this case using the ‘radically elevated rate’ tactic produced the perfect result.

Big smiles all round!