Hotel Rates Prepare to Drop as Cold Shoulder Season Approaches
With the holiday season here, travel is a given, with predicted high travel numbers over the course of the season. However, amidst a huge travel period, hotels are reaching cold shoulder season and lowering their prices for a lack of occupancy. The weekends before Christmas and after New Year’s, many hotels have stated that they will be dropping their rates to encourage travel right before and after the holidays.
With high inflation rates and a recession ahead, consumers are being more frugal with their money and not travelling unnecessarily. Hoteliers hope to see some travelers take advantage cold shoulder season prices and drive up some occupancy.
Sarah Dandashy, Travel & Hospitality Expert with Ask A Concierge, says that people may be less willing to spend on their holiday travels as budgets are tight reaching the end of the year.
Sarah’s Thoughts
“So, the big question is for hotels that are sort of dropping their prices due to low occupancy… their predictions for low occupancy for the weeks right before Christmas, as well as the weeks right after New Year’s, what is this effect going to be? So, at the end of the day, those time periods notoriously have always been low occupancy.
People are really doing the bulk of their travel between Christmas and New Year’s. That’s how it always has been, that’s how it’s going to continue to be. Will hoteliers and hotels actually pick up traffic by dropping their rates right before and right after when they’re expecting things to be not as busy? Sure, they might, but as soon as those rates go back up, those travelers will be getting out of the hotels.
Now as far as what hoteliers and hotels can expect for the holidays, it’s absolutely going to be busy. I do foresee. Unlike the summer travelers will be a little bit more sensitive with their purse strings. They’re gonna be a little bit tighter on their purse strings, it’s the end of the year, there’s inflation, there’s a lot of other things going on, and I think people will not be spending as liberally as they did this summer.
So, raise those prices strategically. Be smart about it, but don’t actually lose out on getting guests just because you’ve raised your prices so incredibly.”
