Recently, the San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate) conducted a research on the major OTA platforms to compare hotel prices for the same hotel rooms, during the same hotel stays, using different devices, browsers and while browsing from different geographic regions.

SFGate found out that the most popular hotel booking sites raise their prices substantially when people living in San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area use these online booking platforms, compared to users browsing from less affluent cities, like Phoenix and Kansas City.

SFGate noted that "In one shocking case, the Bay Area test user was offered a nightly rate for a Manhattan hotel room that was $500 more per night than the rate offered to consumers in the less affluent cities for the exact same room and dates."

Obviously, the OTAs assume that people living in the San Francisco area can afford higher hotel rates, compared to people living in lower income areas of the country.

The question is, does offering differentiated hotel pricing based on the guest's geographic location constitute a smart revenue management approach?

Max Starkov
Max Starkov
Hospitality & travel technologist and digital strategist
Niki Van den Broeck
Niki Van den Broeck
Product Manager Parity Insight and Rate Insight
Timothy Wiersma
Timothy Wiersma
Principal | Revenue Generation, LLC.
Mark Fancourt
Mark Fancourt
Co-Founder at TRAVHOTECH
Trevor Stuart-Hill
Trevor Stuart-Hill
Founder and president of Revenue Matters
Pablo Torres
Pablo Torres
Director at Teduka
Simone Puorto
Simone Puorto
Head of Emerging Trends and Strategic Innovation, Hospitality Net

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Binu Mathews
Binu Mathews
DIRECTOR & CEO at IDS Next