Hotel prices going up?

patchyX2

We're looking to book a hotel in London on the weekend of the 12th Nov. 

We'd shortlisted a handful of hotels at the beginning of this week and spent the next few days working out what to do in the area to determine which hotel would be best.

After the making a decision, we went to book but the price had gone up by £40.  The weird thing is that they ALL went up by almost the same amount, and they're not the same chain or anything like that. They're all on hotels.com though. 

Were we just too slow off the mark and prices increased as we got nearer the date? It's not exactly last minute though.

I've read about tricks where they track your browser session and adjust your price depending on your behaviour (e.g. Increase the price if you keep refreshing), but I tried a different browser and device and got the same price.

Chances of the price coming back down?! 

Grumpy_chap

PledgeX2 said:

We're looking to book a hotel in London on the weekend of the 12th Nov. 

We'd shortlisted a handful of hotels at the beginning of this week and spent the next few days working out what to do in the area to determine which hotel would be best.

After the making a decision, we went to book but the price had gone up by £40.  The weird thing is that they ALL went up by almost the same amount, and they're not the same chain or anything like that. They're all on hotels.com though. 

Were we just too slow off the mark and prices increased as we got nearer the date? It's not exactly last minute though.

I've read about tricks where they track your browser session and adjust your price depending on your behaviour (e.g. Increase the price if you keep refreshing), but I tried a different browser and device and got the same price.

Chances of the price coming back down?! 

Hotel pricing is dynamic and varies rapidly as demand and interest spikes.
There is some truth to the thing about clearing browser / cache.
OR, leave it for a couple of days and see what happens.  If the price increase was driven by your browsing interest, you may see the price fall back.  If the price increase was because demand was high, then the price will stay flat or go up further.  You need to make you own judgement as to what you think is the most likely.

Misslayed

Coronation? Or other related event?

sheramber

 Have you checked the price on the hotels' own websites.

daveyjp

As above.

hotels.com for research, direct to hotel for booking.

p00hsticks

Misslayed said:

Coronation? Or other related event?

Not relevant. Funeral will be over. Coronation won't be until next year....

patchyX2

I did think it might be something Queen/Charles related, and maybe there's a suspicion that something might be happening that weekend. 

Unfortunately I'd like to stick with hotels.com as I've got a bunch of tesco clubcard vouchers to use. 

tightauldgit

PledgeX2 said:

We're looking to book a hotel in London on the weekend of the 12th Nov. 

We'd shortlisted a handful of hotels at the beginning of this week and spent the next few days working out what to do in the area to determine which hotel would be best.

After the making a decision, we went to book but the price had gone up by £40.  The weird thing is that they ALL went up by almost the same amount, and they're not the same chain or anything like that. They're all on hotels.com though. 

Were we just too slow off the mark and prices increased as we got nearer the date? It's not exactly last minute though.

I've read about tricks where they track your browser session and adjust your price depending on your behaviour (e.g. Increase the price if you keep refreshing), but I tried a different browser and device and got the same price.

Chances of the price coming back down?! 

Happens all the time as all these sites are algorithm driven in terms of their pricing. So you then need to make the judgement call on whether it was just a spike that will fall back or whether something was driving the price and its only going to go up more. 

Check the price of the hotel on other sites and see if the pricing at Hotels.com is out of whack with what others are charging. 

Chances of it coming back down? Toss of a coin really but in my experience hotel pricing only ever seems to go up as you get closer to the date unless there's a huge oversupply and generally on weekends in London most hotels will see decent demand. 

I've tended to just start booking things when I see them and take the free cancellation option so if i find a better deal down the line I can switch. Don't think as yet I've ever seen a better deal down the line though.

Tescodealqueen

PledgeX2 said:

I did think it might be something Queen/Charles related, and maybe there's a suspicion that something might be happening that weekend. 

Unfortunately I'd like to stick with hotels.com as I've got a bunch of tesco clubcard vouchers to use. 

Its Remembrance Sunday weekend so would have thought London would be busy