What Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott Don't Want You To Know

The real reason hotel rooms are so expensive now is because hotels across America are reportedly using an algorithm to secretly, and illegally, inflate prices.
-----
More Perfect Union’s mission is to build power for working people. Here’s what that means:
We report on the real struggles and challenges of the working class from a working-class perspective, and we attempt to connect those problems to potential solutions.
We report on the abuses and wrongdoing of corporate power, and we seek to hold accountable the ultra-rich who have too much power over America’s political and economic systems.
We're an independent, nonprofit newsroom. To support our work:
- Help fund our reporting: secure.actblue...
- Substack: substack.perfe...
- TikTok: / moreperfectunion
- Twitter: / moreperfectus
- Facebook: / moreperfunion
- Instagram: / perfectunion
- Threads: www.threads.ne...
- Website: www.perfectuni...

[@coleyoutubechannel]

Imagine if property management companies used these algorithms to inflate the prices of apartments causing a cost-of-living crisis, oh wait......

[@publicenemy1238]

Imagine thinking you're educated in business and real estate and being manipulated by propaganda

[@LoveKeepsGiving]

oh wait - that was literally in the video we just watched...

[@cdevidal]

Can be undercut by competitors. Oh, there are no competitors? Could that be because excess regulation makes it difficult for scrappy startups?

[@kendallevans4079]

@@publicenemy1238 Imagine trying to appear smart on a YT channel after just one Jr. college class in accounting

[@lohphat]

It's worse than that. Large commercial brokers in NYC are intentionally warehousing 60,000 rent-controlled units off the market to force people into market-rate units. It's market collusion and racketeering.

[@Vivi-j2x]

The company is named "Rainmaker." So they literally named their business for greed. As in, "making it rain" dollar bills. It's so brazen, blatant, and obvious.

[@CordeliaAurora]

Yeah there's no positive connotation here

[@MuzixMaker]

@@Vivi-j2x rainmaker doesn’t mean greed.

[@nubius]

@@MuzixMaker I don't think it's an Okada reference.

[@flankman9385]

Wow weird you’re telling me a giant international corporation is in it for the money? I’m just hearing this for the first time. You should make a video about it.

[@serhat1]

Employees are so greedy they are price fixing, we should cap their salaries…

[@ElectronWranglr]

Until CEOs see jail time nothing will change. Fines are just part of the risk reward calculation.

[@YouAreDreamingRightNow]

jail or poverty

[@TheSlickmicks]

ETR

[@mapgar1479]

Put them in general population then.

[@brucehicks5817]

They all spend so much money on lobbying as well. It feels like the government is either afraid, hamstrung, or in on it.

[@truecatholic1]

Worse would be enforced minimum wage employment doing unpleasant work.

[@ibme93]

No, the hotels don't talk to each other, their computers talk to each other. How is that not collusion?

[@SplitScreamOFFICIAL]

They don't talk to each other. They just listen to one entity that tells them "hey this is your recommended price." BTW, it also tells every other hotel to set it at that price too

[@zerog1037]

Like how our computers are colluding under this comment right now to boycott hotels we never could afford to begin with 👀

[@Korloko]

This is happening in agriculture, housing, car sales, and will probably be revealed in most other industries soon.

[@boysinthewoods4189]

@@Korlokoand coming to the grocery stores

[@mathgasm8484]

I worked for a hotel holding company and they owned all the brands around the airport. so the prices were all high.

[@margaritoamargo6347]

private equity seems to be behind every terrible thing for your average American.

[@DembaiVT]

Canadians too.😢

[@ScaryNda206]

Truthfully its lobbying/bribery thats behind everything.. Yet the politicians will never ban that because thats their bonus. and thats why they get into politics in the first place. but private equity is just as bad.. private equity and lobbying need banned..

[@Allenrythe]

It's just another word for Bourgeois Capital. Private Equity is literally just a way around regulations put in place to limit monopolistic practices by industrial capitalists by moving control of industrial capital into the hands of finance capitalists. Essentially a reversion to a more primitive, feudal form of capital that was brought under the control of industrial capital during the industrial revolution. We're seeing a return to a more feudal concept of money as productive capacity is destroyed in favor of rent extraction. A feedback loop that destroys the productive gains we've won with blood over the past 200 years and is only propped up through the exploitation of productive labor on a scale not seen since 1850s England.

[@utubes720]

PE = Services specifically offered to the ultra wealthy (and institutional investors) to abuse the system and/or companies they acquire, and extract more wealth no matter the destruction they cause.

[@kevinbimariga3895]

I think jews are more accurate

[@dvdv8197]

“This country has socialism for the rich, rugged individualism for the poor." -Martin Luther King, Jr. Still as true as ever today.

[@xjk101]

Your favorite quote I see.

[@publicenemy1238]

You have no clue what that even means

[@petlovers1780]

@@publicenemy1238 You are one of thieves they are exposing. Why are you so mad 😂😂

[@publicenemy1238]

@@petlovers1780 you're triggered 🤣

[@xjk101]

@@publicenemy1238 I believe dvd just likes that quote. They use it a lot.

[@FeebleAntelope]

It's insane that a group of people so concerned with calling social safety nets, "a free lunch" are all about creating free lunches for themselves at the expense of society.

[@rogerc23]

Why wouldn’t they. They own the democrats and their president

[@krisb-travel]

yup you nailed it

[@willburr5929]

Greed has created a horrible nightmare for humanity and it's just beginning.

[@blu0065]

Is this the great filter? Or are we facing an even greater filter built into the system?

[@matthewingerson]

All the problems in the world are cause by (a)the indecent, corrupt, wealthy-class knaves & their indecent, corrupt RW-politics, and by (b)the indecent, ignorant, working-class dupes who support the corrupt wealthy-class & their corrupt RW-politics.

[@calisingh7978]

*God*

[@a70duster]

Greed had always existed, nothing new here folks.

[@EKA201-j7f]

It reminds me of Marie Antoinette, innocent victim though she was.

[@missx147]

I work for major hotel brand, our rooms sunday to monday, $139 & $149. On the weekends prices will surge, $199 and $209. Now our weekend prices are $399 and $429! My hotel is 25 years old and NOT invested in as our brand dictates. We get allll the complaints because our property is not worth the price. It is definitely price gouging!

[@masseiy]

Those are the saddest hotels to visit because they’re charging 4/5 star prices for a 2 star experience.

[@cameron.t]

It’s sad that this isn’t crazy to me, but I worked in a “lifestyle luxury” brand. The weekdays would see Expedia rates around $150. Weekends easily above $1,000 It’s sad to see this spread to more standard hotels…

[@4g63t8]

I’ve slept in my car many times even with a good paying job and a credit card….and that was before these prices. It’s always an option.

[@ElectronicWasteland-p2x]

Cendyn for hotels, Agri Stats for food, RealPage for rentals is there anything that isn't being price-fixed using the internet right now? These tech-bros need to do some serious jail-time, they're robbing people in broad daylight.

[@KastorFlux]

Correct. I've consistently turned down work for a decade when the goal was to mine customers for data, rig prices through "plausibly deniable" algos, and "extract value" by shoehorning middle men into transactions where they add zero value. 99% of big tech is just reframing illegal trading practices and executing them in a different context.

[@calisingh7978]

Clinton global initiative in charge of UN agenda 2030 dei enforcement

[@07wrxtr1]

Notice they’re all beta males or on the r selection in terms of r vs k selection theory Meaning: weak men dislike competition and will cheat in order to “win bro”

[@Alban-ux8jf]

Tech bros will do their thing - find new ways to make money. It's the government that should intervene on these practices

[@turkizno]

These companies have addresses and CEOs with addresses. Maybe it is time some people just, show up there

[@shekharmoona544]

Its expensive to stay at RV parks. Private equity has campgrounds with barely any amenities priced at hotel level. Mind you no one is coming to do maid service inside your RV.

[@robertweinmann1657]

No one does maid service at hotels

[@celieboo]

I only tent camp and that is at state parks. It is only like $12-27 per night, depending if you do primitive or electric.

[@johnroberts3824]

Do you mean RV parks? That's not my idea of "camping". If you want something literally dirt cheap, look into dispersed camping. It's free and does not require a reservation.

[@lolalalia4119]

I camp at state parks for $25 a night in what they call a screened shelter - mosquito netting, cement floor, and picnic table. I'm extremely income and $25 a night is NOT very affordable but is the most affordable option. But you are right about non-state campgrounds owned by private equity firms. While I'm not saying everything should be free I will say that NOBODY is actually free in America when you consider that sleeping in the streets is a crime, camping requires permits and entrance fees, and shelters have strict rules on who is allowed to sleep there and for how long. We can't even travel interstate for free when you consider the fees that go into having a driver license, operating/registering a vehicle, and using a highway. Operating a vehicle on an American street is NOT free and permission must first be obtained from the government before using the very roads our tax dollars paid for. If you cannot travel from Florida to California with paying the government in some way or by deferring those costs to somebody else (hitchhiking), then you do not have true freedom. If you are not allowed to grow your own food, forage, or hunt without asking for permission or paying taxes, then you are NOT a free human. You are paying to use a planet you were born on and cannot leave.

[@lolalalia4119]

​@@celiebooI do the same but think about it, as a human being on Earth ou are not allowed to sleep on the dirt ground in a federal or state park that your taxes are already funding. Nor can you sleep on the city sidewalk despite having paid the taxes that poured the cement. Even the giant forests that allow hiking and camping without a permit or entrance requirement do not allow someone to build a shelter. Foresters routinely tear down shelters made from fallen trees. They say it's for safety purposes but I think it's more to do with control.

[@fingiess]

why does everything bad start with private equity

[@maryshkamiceli8388]

PE firms are destroying hospital emergency departments. I feel sorry for new doctors (human and animal) who have to deal with upcharging patients / clients because that's the PE owner's business model. Profits at the expense of people / pets.

[@laurag1406]

Truer words have never been spoken. We need to do something about this. Revolution anyone?

[@calisingh7978]

@@maryshkamiceli8388 the biggest hospital chains in the US are “nonprofit” and federally funded

[@renogunzddragon1900]

​@@laurag1406i would join you,but the majority won't,even though they know things are getting worse..that's why nothing will change 😅

[@Korloko]

@@fingiess Every time I wait on hold for 30 minutes I google is ____ owned by PE? The answer is yes.

[@y2washere]

How about an algorithm that predicts if workers are paid enough to live well?

[@xavierburval4128]

That already exists assuming you drop the “well” part

[@blu0065]

​@@xavierburval4128please educate me about the algorithm 😮

[@beng4647]

Haha....you thought they paid you what they can afford 😂

[@i_i8924]

*Its called a union* 😃

[@beng4647]

@@i_i8924 But then we have meetings and stuff. Give me an AI God.

[@ChrisOBrien1171]

In the 50's my Dad worked a modest job, Mom stayed at home and raised the kids, and they lived a nice middle class lifestyle including owning a home. Nowadays both I and my partner works and can barely afford to make ends meet. Soon the kids and family dog will need to work to keep this household going. It's the destruction of the American dream right before our eyes.

[@GottaStenberg]

I'm 54 and my wife and I are VERY worried about our future, gas and food prices rising daily. We have had our savings dwindle with the cost of living into the stratosphere, and we are finding it impossible to replace them. We can get by, but can't seem to get ahead. My condolences to anyone retiring in this crisis, 30 years nonstop just for a crooked system to take all you worked for.

[@JessGraham7]

I feel your pain mate, as a fellow retiree, I'd suggest you look into passive index fund investing and learn some more. For me, I had my share of ups and downs when I first started looking for a consistent passive income so I hired an expert advisor for aid, and following her advice, I poured $30k in value stocks and digital assets, Up to 200k so far and pretty sure I'm ready for whatever comes.

[@TaylorGaston-z9n]

If you are not in the financial market space right now, you are making a huge mistake. I understand that it could be due to ignorance, but if you want to make your money work for you...prevent inflation

[@AnstettSkelly]

I was a late bloomer, but Tracy Britt Cool Consulting, my financial advisor helped me bring it all together and got me into crypto. Now retired for 6 years at 72, my managed portfolio with Tracy generates about 9k a month on average more than my RMD on my retirement accounts. Not real big, but together with SS we're able to live reasonably with 160k a year. While being mortgage free.

[@AnstettSkelly]

She is really a good investment advisor. Was privileged to attend some of her seminars.that's how I started my own crypto investment

[@ejamesl]

It would appear that the large grocery chains are using similar technology to inflate grocery prices.

[@KastorFlux]

They are.

[@DembaiVT]

Yep. Anti trust suits here in Canada over it. But they also know there's nothing we can do. Three places to buy groceries without a membership and two of them are absolutely pricefixing. The third is Walmart and doesn't offer a full selection of food.

[@ropro9817]

The enshittification of our world continues... 😒

[@robotparadise]

by design.

[@erickiza87]

Yep. So much for technology making things more efficient and cheaper.

[@Korloko]

@@erickiza87 Gen Z has only lived in a world where tech was evil. They missed the cool innovation era.

[@doesnotFempute]

using this, thanks

[@dvdv8197]

Using algorithms to determine ANY prices should be made ILLEGAL RIGHT NOW.

[@DrugDealer541]

Capitalism eats itself alive. Eventually the capitalists will own everything. Already half way there with homes.

[@bravojr]

Delete all investors then.

[@NutellaCrepe]

The root problem is price fixing. If each hotel use only simple algorithms to determine prices based on supply and demand, then it wouldn’t be a problem. The problem is when they all use the same algorithms that communicate with each other to artificially price fix the entire industry. We need to strengthen and empower smaller businesses so they can bring real competition to force prices from the bigger brands to come down. We also need to dedicate more resources for the FTC to prosecute antitrust violators so big businesses stop colluding and get broken up.

[@nmasolanmasola]

Algorithms aren’t the problem. Airlines have been using algorithms to set prices for decades. The problem is collusion. Since they all share their prices with a single entity (STR). They are colluding to fix prices through a 3rd party.

[@publicenemy1238]

Imagine thinking you're an educated person 😉

[@montecristo1845]

The most maddening, frustrating thing is that when (not if, but when) the next financial bubble bursts, they will receive a government bailout and then continue business as usual. Nothing learned. Nothing changed.

[@chucky187]

They do the same thing with rent.

[@falldarkraven3]

Yup, software is called Real Page.

[@jneff6456]

Its almost like algorithms should be outlawed for direct or indirect price influencing.

[@dvdv8197]

Greed is not the desire for more, it's the desire for more at the expense of others.

[@lolalalia4119]

👏 yes! Having over a billion dollars and wanting more should be classified as a mental health condition in line with severe hoarding. A hoarder threatens their well being by living in unsafe conditions. But a wealth hoarder threatens the well being of everyone else cuz in order to gain something, someone else has to lose something. Their money comes directly from us. This misconception that wealth comes from out of the air is killing us.

[@kylegarrett2429]

Greed is not the desire for more, it's the desire for all by any means necessary.

[@matthewingerson]

All the problems in the world are cause by (a)the indecent, corrupt, wealthy-class knaves & their indecent, corrupt RW-politics, and by (b)the indecent, ignorant, working-class dupes who support the corrupt wealthy-class & their corrupt RW-politics.

[@matthewingerson]

Greed & Gluttony are basically on the same level as addictions & mental-illnesses. These indecent & corrupt people will NEVER give up their addictions willingly, and they will NEVER seek treatment for their mental-illness willingly.

[@mapgar1479]

@@matthewingerson Oh Jews!

[@ZZangZZangM]

Concert tickets are also out of control

[@gmoo1376]

Everything groceries, internet, cars, all monopolies w/ politicians in their pockets and not enough peasants complaining

[@hkraytai]

That’s because musicians no longer make any money from selling records since the internet so they make it up from touring.

[@Khaab00]

@@hkraytaithe musicians are not making much from touring. Ticketmaster is the one ripping off the musicians, events, and fans.

[@lopoa126]

@@hkraytai Ticketmaster and their partner will blacklist you if you get on their bad side. They concert mafia now. They charge what they want.

[@monay9138]

This is why we should place the blame of higher costs on the corporations, not the govt. I wish this were highlighted more.

[@anonanon1604]

you do realize that the government is the only entity with the authority and responsibility to regulate anti-consumer practices and penalize companies for their wrongdoings, right? meaning that the government is literally the only reasonable target of blame, because they are failing to do their job of keeping abuses like this in check why aren't they doing their job? because the very same companies who are screwing us all over, are bribing (lobbying) them not to do their jobs I wish this were highlighted more

[@hidden_name7469]

The government allows these things to happen tho

[@Stop.różności]

They bought or control politicians. Time to know it.

[@monay9138]

@@hidden_name7469 they are currently in litigation with several companies, they cannot just stop them. same with Facebook or any other corporation. it takes interference from the DOJ.

[@Tadaia]

@@hidden_name7469Yes but as I've noticed the govt is now controlled by those corporations. And frankly, to a large degree, so are the people. We've become the battered housewives of big business.

[@ichaukan]

Corporate greed has reached the level of actual psychosis.

[@jumbomuffin1316]

These corporations will never the prices go back down. This is a country of corporations more than people

[@mapgar1479]

Nazism is a form of socialism (all forms of socialism are bad) where multinational corporations have more power than national governments.

[@HoustonRacewayKid]

Private equity firms!!! That’s the problem….

[@johnroberts3824]

Tell me about it! I was with a company for 17 years and then it was bought-out by a private equity firm. They proceeded to wreck it and within 2 years I and many others were laid off. The equity firm eventually bowed out and now the company is owned by the bank. It's a mere shadow of what it once was. Those private equity firms borrow money for the purchase, and the company that they buy is saddled with the debt. They DO NOT care about people, only money. They lie to the employees. If your company gets bought out by a private equity firm then I would strongly suggest you start looking for another job.

[@HoustonRacewayKid]

@@johnroberts3824 from what I’ve understood in the last years since Covid, it’s a buyers market for {edit: corporate interests to purchase:..}Mom&Pop shops, specially if franchise rights involved, and it’s a massive absorption of common wealth into the hands of these conglomerate companies that are called “private equity” but are actually CAPITAL INTEREST. [Only all caps for distinguishing a difference between private money and CORPORATE money] It angers me to the roots of my soul. Thanks for letting me breathe.

[@HoustonRacewayKid]

@@johnroberts3824 I could swear I have already replied to your comment before just now, if it were deleted, I have no idea. From my understanding, these private equity firms are investing in real estate and the business is just the pawn to place it on the open market(when they purchase a branded business). The employees will absolutely suffer, and hopefully gang up together in a union, like Starbucks employees have. Otherwise, effectively what I’ve come to know is the private equity firms want to FLIP the business to another larger entity before it goes public, or not, for profit! This scheme is destroying any chance of you or I or any person we know to leverage the home value to a bank loan in hopes of running a “successful” business. I could even continue on and ask what is a successful business? Is it making money and paying taxes, or are the owners making money and paying no taxes, while claiming losses???

[@MalachiVanHaynes]

The fact is that enough people are still paying the higher prices. That's why prices are high, the demand warrants it. Otherwise, these hotels wouldn't have increased profits when they jacked up the prices. Blame the greedy algorithms all you want, but no one is forcing anyone to overspend. When enough people stop buying, prices drop!

[@fitofito1001]

This is not true. Hotel is an essential part of society. There are always people staying in hotels for whatever the reasons. Just like food, you have to buy food.

[@wesizdebess3464]

​@@fitofito1001Nope!

[@dennisd9554]

Fewer people DID opt to stay in the hotel. They explicitly showed that occupancy rates dropped. Yet their revenues increased something like 40%! These algorithms do an end-run around the supply-demand curve meeting to fix the equilibrium price because virtually all the suppliers are using them, thus creating inherent collusion.

[@wesizdebess3464]

@@fitofito1001 Nope!

[@Kytreeswerving]

And of course, lawmaker won’t intervene because they’ll be paid not to

[@LounaDavrielle]

I'm not american. But I believe some american lawmakers are actually honest. Bernie Sanders fought for labor rights and affordable healthcare his entire life. But many american lawmakers are not honest. I think they really despise their constituents. They laugh at them behind their back. Unfortunately, the dishonest crooks keep getting elected. The same thing is happening at the state level. Recently, the governors of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas issued a statement condemning labour unions and telling workers that unions are bad for them. It's complete non-sense and very dishonest. And yet these 6 governors keep getting reelected 😞

[@franimal86]

Politicians are invested in these companies. Why would they give up their winnings?

[@krisb-travel]

- lobbying needs to be illegal - private equity investing in housing, land, etc should be illegal.

[@donaldpleasant7839]

It’s not a free market anymore.

[@Khaab00]

It’s never been a free market. The biggest players in the game have always hedged the market in their favor. The theory taught in school is only to fool people into thinking that there is actual honor among thieves.

[@lopoa126]

When was it?

[@Construimus_Batuimus]

Just because it's a computer program doesn't mean it's not collusion. Welcome to the Gilded Age 2.0 y'all.

[@TransConBrilliance]

yeah but the law has to catch up and the hotel lobbyist will make sure that congress will take forever to even draft a bill let alone get it passed.

[@Construimus_Batuimus]

​@@TransConBrilliance The law is not going to catch up because those lobbyists are stuffing the pockets of legislators so that fiscal policy goes the way the ultra-rich and the corporations that feed them *_want_* fiscal policy to go. We are a society which has been deliberately divided into tribal groups and set at each other's throats on purpose. Chaos benefits the oligarchs. Weasels like Trump *_thrive_* on chaos.

[@ashleylala4293]

The government hasn’t been enforcing anti-trust or monopoly laws for a long time. How is Google or Amazon not a monopoly?

[@pauls5745]

Oh Google is in hot water now with the FTC for paying to exclude competitors! This is impactful.

[@paulgermano7837]

When I go on roadtrips, I don't pay for a night at some overpriced lodging. Instead, I stealth camp in my vehicle at their parking lots!

[@ryanschwan2507]

hell yeah

[@Akac3sh]

hell yeah

[@jumpman366]

You’re paying for gas though

[@kyle9401]

​@@jumpman366🙄

[@jumpman366]

@@kyle9401 lmaoooo

[@ryerye9019]

If only workers could use these algorithms to collectively set their wages.

[@randellsmith7651]

It's always private equity breaking laws ruining the everything they touch. Private equity firms need to be held accountable.

[@WhiteChocolateSyrup]

Can you hear us Chairwoman Lina Khan? Chairwoman Lina Khan can you hear us? Please save us Chairwoman Lina Khan 😔🙏🏻

[@acebaker3623]

A friend recently suggested a weekend trip to Vegas and I thought it could be fun. She suggested a Hotel Downtown to save money. The cheapest rooms were almost $300/night off season. WTF? The last time I went to Vegas and stayed Downtown the rooms were literally 10% of that. I politely said there was no way I could afford that price.

[@robsquared2]

Imagine if someone poisoned the algorithm and artificially lowered the prices.

[@bvanderford]

Imagine if the algorithm is sentient enough to lower the prices itself. The day may yet come

[@GuadalupeMartinezb]

I'm favoured, $27K every week! I can now give back to the locals in my community and also support God's work and the church. God bless America.

[@JohnJosephTravolta-y8i]

You're correct!! I make a lot of money without relying on the government. Investing in stocks and digital currencies is beneficial at this moment.

[@BirdieChap-y7n]

I just want to use this opportunity to say a very big thank's to Susan and his Strategy, he changed my life.

[@VincentLussier]

Susan Duke program is widely available online..

[@MillerSecurity]

Started with 5,000$ and Withdrew profits 89,000$

[@MillerSecurity]

Susan gave me the autonomy I need to learn at my own pace and ask questions when I need to she's so accommodating.

[@lolalalia4119]

Is there ANY sector of commercial business NOT using these "dynamic" pricing models?? These companies found a way to get around the pesky issue of creating a monopoly using plausible deniability while lobbying our government to allow them to continue. Effective capitalism that SUPPORTS a society requires self accountability on the behalf of business owners to not be evil. Thats why they dont like regulations and gov oversight. Thats why they push for "small governments" while actively working with our supreme court judges to pass rulings that are in line with a HUGE government.

[@laurag1406]

THIS💯

[@KastorFlux]

It's the same thing Zillow and others are doing with housing prices.

[@Bekssss]

If no stupid people with 30 year mortgage prices will go down real fast but now they already offer 40 years mortgage

[@nb6525]

Great piece, I hope mainstream media picks this up!

[@07wrxtr1]

They’re apart of the problem

[@angrymoogle8591]

Artificial price fixing!? Wow! Like that isn't happening in literally all aspects of our life right now.

[@Yormsane]

Straight out of the RealPage playbook. 😡

[@Bugneedfix]

I’m just enjoying my day, and now, the next time I scavenge funds for a vacation, I’ll be thinking about how I’m being price gouged down to my underwear.

[@hugaflower]

OMG THANK YOU FOR DOING A REPORT ON THIS!!! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I have been wondering what the hell was going on besides the fact I thought I was competing against millionaires / billionaires and corporations that could pay and do pay the prices. Until you guys did the Real Page story and I started to wonder if that was what happening to the hotel prices Thank you I was wondering how it was legal. I am so happy about this story!! I hope everyone shares this. 🎉🎉 How and when can we get these hotels to drop their prices, let alone these added resort fees to already exorbitant prices ? How do we stop them charging resort fees when all you do is maybe have that room for 12 hours.?( In most cases.) Thank you once again!

[@optimizeproductionsofficial]

Kaon here, I work as Audio Visual Technician /Stagehand, I get sent to Hotels sometimes and their prices of foods and stores are overpriced asf, a Local that works in some of the hotels are on Strike rn, we all don’t make enough to survive the downtown prices

[@angelmujahid2233]

This is another reason why voting matters folks. We need to keep Lena Khan and somehow deal with the Supreme Court so we can get this under control

[@terrancekayton007]

They doin this with Uber and Lyft driver wages, too.

[@timetowakeup6302]

Everything is a rich man’s trick

[@LounaDavrielle]

The rich are absolutely ruthless. They will fight brutally to make $100000 more. Even if they don't need it. They are killers. The poor are naive and don't stand up for their rights.

[@shekharmoona544]

I always find it strange that low quality rooms can be priced near mid tier level rooms.

[@anthonyemmm]

They’re using algorithms and software for everything we purchase. This is how prices are being manipulated and increasing.

[@PotofGlue]

It's amazing how many times we've had companies argue that cramming tech into a crime makes it a different thing that isn't illegal yet

[@raigresham1298]

I only travel and stay in hotels recently due to work. Seeing what they pay I always wonder are hotels now just employees going to meeting after meeting?

[@DampNoodles]

Respectfully. Idk why I even clicked on this video... "What if I told you rates are artificially inflated, and their using algorithms to do it" Like idk what else I was expecting? Duh, like literally everything else. I'm so tired of this world... Thank you for your time and research and the well made video. It's not y'all's fault the world is awful.

[@bkohatl]

I went to Las Vegas in 2012 and paid $39 a night for a week from Expedia at the old LVH Hotel where Elvis used to sing at. As I was checking out, a man was furious at check in when he was told that there was a resort fee of $39 dollars a night added to his room rate. I found out that it was in the small print on net hotel/travel/airfare sites. That was the last trip I've taken because I will never pay a resort fee.

[@LyubovMigdalska]

The mere fact that people pay those prices mean that's how much the room is worth. Stop going places with those prices, and prices will drop.

[@jocosus3]

1:16 Private Equity = PE = #PureEvil

[@LounaDavrielle]

Private Equity = Billionaire Stephen Schwartzman. Schwartzman is the most powerful Private Equity mogul in the world. He is the King of American Private Equity. And yet very few americans have heard of him.

[@ryanschwan2507]

@@LounaDavrielle every single time... sigh

[@zodiacfml]

high prices everywhere! this hurts the young and financially illiterate people. while it could be argued that people should know learn money or avoid overspending, it is too complicated for the common person

[@froggy_days]

I don't understand why anyone would pay 250 for a basic 3 star hotel room

[@munster355]

because its the cheapest option in a 3 hour radius that you think *might* not have bedbugs

[@mxtthe3]

Rather live in the woods

[@CeeTee380]

I don’t think many people want to pay this, but sometimes there are no other options. I wanted to go meet my grandbaby for this first time, even though I set up alerts almost a year ago for price drops, prices have only been getting more expensive since. Mom and dad live in a small place in a major city and just don’t have to space to host me or the vacation days to travel to me. I’m going to have to suck it up and pay the price. It’s a huge bite out of my budget, but it might be the only way I’ll meet my grandbaby in any foreseeable future.

[@lopoa126]

How small is your world? Do you go outside?

[@burchified]

Not me walking into random hotels for free continental breakfasts when I haven't rented a room there 😂

[@kmjgsdkmjgsd]

Libertarians will never have a solution to these evil companies.

[@lopoa126]

A solution would mean that they would no longer be a (right wing) Libertarian.

[@ryanschwan2507]

A libertarian would say it's regulations that are protecting these companies from competition. And they're right, but the system is so fk'd at this point there's no point trying to fix it.

[@rampaginwalrus]

It's inspiring how competitors can set aside their differences and work together to improve efficiency. It's almost like the fundamental theological maxims of capitalist economic theory are bullshit, and competition is not the inevitable state of social equilibrium.

[@Marshmallow_Venom]

Again, private equity. Again, goddamn algorithms. We are all fighting a losing battle and it's not going to improve until we the people start to fight back.

[@spartan662501]

So yeah, it's not inflation. It's greedflation

[@georgesunday9855]

Calvin Coolidge once said that the business of America is business. They run the show, and dictate to the government and to the public what is to be done.

[@robwyyi]

No wonder hospitality workers calling for pay rise.

[@FerdinandCesarano]

I recently stayed in Philly, and had to pay double what I had paid at the same hotel only a few years before.

[@Daelmn]

Find these same companies/software for food companies!

[@typetalk3726]

Someone said Agri Stats is one

[@neviswarren]

Excellent reporting. Thank you.

[@Theonewhowonders92]

Corporations: "Woe is me, the winds of change demand that I have more of your money" Chuds: "Yes, long live the Market, blessed be its name"

[@brettito]

If I went around to hotels, gathered data about hotel prices and then told the hotels what prices to set, I would go to jail.

[@laurag1406]

This is not just happening at luxury hotels. Extended Stay America was acquired by a venture capital firm and prices went up by roughly 50%. There are long term residents staying at ESA’s because people have been priced out of the rental market, now many have been priced out of this form of housing too.

[@elitepctech]

Private equity ruins all.

[@heathj7794]

If youre in Nashville hotel taxes went so the titans could have a new stadium built

[@Mito383]

Every week I hear of yet another sector using algorithms to fix prices.

[@Hyde_Hill]

On top of this the top booking sites also force hotels to keep the same prices for their own rooms across platforms and get penalized if they don't, including their own site. The EU deemed it illegal but they just changed the wording to get around it. They also give the prices of their competitors and other info in the form of competitive sets. Reducing market uncertainty.

[@Jgorinac]

As someone new to this channel it would be nice to see some coverage of businesses or sectors that are doing things right

[@SurvivalSavvvy]

Cargo trailer is freedom :)

[@myronaustin]

Same moves every other industry is trying to pull and still cry about taxes or brag on their earnings.

[@ricpan]

Power always strives for more power, possessions for more possessions. That's why the world is fucked up.

[@mclome22]

The world is great the way it’s heading 😊

[@ricpan]

@@mclome22 This is the greatest planet on earth. - Joe Biden

[@AM-uk7jv]

Yes software and databases like this should be illegal.

[@cablemodem]

The only silver lining to this is that hotels are not a basic need, for most people that is, and that you can vote with your wallet. It's much harder to boycott groceries or housing.

[@dillasoul2228]

Voting with your wallet is possibly the worst of ideas, but unfortunately, it's also the common one

[@LeeHawkinsPhoto]

It’s not voting with your wallet when there’s no competition to vote _for._ When all the competitors are doing it-and they’re all doing it-it’s not an election to not spend money, it’s flat out disenfranchisement.

[@_Ahmed_15]

This is happening in all industries. We're living through the second Gilded Age

[@who2u333]

Private Equity!

[@marcoprolo1488]

The more inflation rages, the less I spend. I replaced restaurants by cooking at home, I switched from hotels to camping, etc... I actually save a lot of money nowadays. For having fun the old way, I just fly abroad where my dollars last longer.

[@NicksDynasty]

Use credit card points.

[@aaronhope8366]

I love having my mind changed. For a long time, I didn't want to blame corporations in the market. I didn't realize that they had all joined hands with a common entity.

[@joeaverage3444]

It's all a scam. Plain and simple.

[@b.w.1386]

searched for a room, did some research then came back to the same room 2 days later and the price was 30% more. went to a different computer and network, (searched at work) price was back to normal!!

[@frequentlycynical642]

Anyone old enough to remember why Motel 6 and Super 8 were so named? That's right, a clean room, TV, and telephone for $6-8 a night. So, add inflation and we are at what,? $60-80? A few years ago I looked at hotels here, just north of Austin, TX, to try to help a homeless mother. The least expensive were double that and did the dynamic pricing thing.

[@monicavelez1075]

The bigger rip off is you actually don’t get the room for a full 24 hours this is disgusting a day rate should be 24 rental can’t get In till 4 want you out by 10 with maids knocking on your door at 8 am thru should be sued

[@tailwind12]

i am a US citizen. i work in singapore. went to Bangkok for vacation. stayed at the Radisson Blu Bangkok 17th floor. beautiful room. king bed-buffet breakfast like no other. $95 per night. yes, different nations. different economy's but still shows value for money$

[@jordancastillo9654]

This is happening in a lot of industries, this isn’t inflation it’s corporate greed

[@socalrefrigeration548]

The elephant in the room is "Why are you vacationing?". If customers don't spend that money then the rates won't rise.

[@LexiLadonna]

This is happening in every single industry. They think that just because they’re not directly communicating but if they all are using the same algorithm based platform to fix prices that they can get away with it.

[@davidmetze2421]

You forgot to mention the consolidation in the industry which is now dominated by three companies. When you own and operate 30 percent of the hotel inventory in a market you hardly need to collude to boost prices and suppress wages. The FTC led by Lina Khan is taking on these corporations.

[@jylphoto]

i love that there are people out there who sue against these companies

[@rougenaxela]

This algorithmic pricing bullshit needs a hard crackdown, across the whole economy.

[@serhat1]

Employees are so greedy they are price fixing, we should cap their salaries.

[@richardc020]

Outsourcing pricing to vendors won’t absolve the clients of liability for crimes.