> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Burke [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> 
> Craig wrote,
> 
> > --- John Burke <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > > ... perhaps someone ... knows how these
> > > reservation systems work ... explain how [both hotels]
> > > had no rooms available 8/10-8/15 at any price, [yet]
> > > expedia.com [was able to reserve a room]
> >
> > Let me explain, you see the same pricing scheme is used when
> > doing airline pricing.
> >
> 
> It was more the room availability than pricing that I was 
> emphasizing. [...]

I think there are a couple of activities going on here.  First, the hotel may reserve some rooms from the booking process for people who might be exempt from that silly little phrase "...at any price" [celebrities, dignitaries, etc.]  As the reserved time draws near and it becomes clear that these rooms won't be needed for such purposes, they are returned to the pool of available rooms [hence the reason they showed up on monday vs. being unavailable last week]  Because these are now "short term", the price goes way up :)

Secondly, Expedia may have reserved a [substantial?] block of rooms, which they re-sell via the website.  Because the reservation was actually done far in advance, they got a "really good rate" and can re-sell it at "an OK rate" all the way up until 20-30 days from the actual reservation date -- at that point, any un-re-sold rooms are returned [prior to any reservation "fees" being applied] and suddenly the hotel has "rooms available" on short notice.  [translation: expedia == scalper]

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