Are Hotel-Fee Initiatives Inspired by What the Airlines Have Accomplished?
Photo Credit: Front desk employees at work at the Courtyard New York Manhattan. Hotel companies, including Marriott, Hilton, and IHG, are implementing stricter cancellation policies and becoming smarter about their revenue management. Skift / Samantha Shankman
Skift Take
In some ways, perhaps … but one big difference between hotels and airlines is that hotels want their consumers to actually like (maybe even love) them. While with airlines, that might be a different story as some recent events would demonstrate (we're looking at you, United).
Are hotels becoming more like the airlines when it comes to how they're pricing their rooms, especially by imposing stricter cancellation policies and other fees?
It depends whom you ask but one thing is clear: Hotels are definitely becoming a lot more sophisticated about how they're charging guests, and about pricing their product.
The Case for airlines inspiring Hotels
"I see them basically taking a page out of the airlines' playbook," said Craig Fichtelberg, president of AmTrav Corporate Travel, referring to hotel chains. Fichtelberg sees parallels between airlines' "extremely restrictive basic economy fares," and the stricter cancellation policies recently enacted by Marriott, Hilton, and InterContinental Hotels Group.
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"That basic economy rate [on airlines] is going to attract the same people who are buying low-cost carrier rates, but the companies we work with at AmTrav are as
