Why rack rates can rack off

You’ve seen them I’m sure, rates displayed for accommodation bookings on websites named ‘rack rates’. Everywhere you look these days there’s another daily deals website or online travel agency offering accommodation deals with a hefty discount. 50% is common, 75% is regular and I’ve even seen 90% discounts being touted. In many cases the comparison prices being used are elusive at best and sometimes just plain non-existent.

Before I get stuck in, though, this post isn’t a criticism of accommodation operators that use ‘rack’ or ‘full’ rates. It makes sense that they set a ceiling price for their product, and there are instances in which a rack rate does actually get charged. This blog is a criticism of third party websites, offering a service like Travelbug, that use these full rates to define price comparisons.

At Travelbug, we don’t use ‘full rates’ or ‘rack rates’ to compare sale rates. We think that for accommodation booking websites like us they are misleading and here’s why: Read more…