In the hotel programs — and also in some airline programs — in which I have had guaranteed space access, when facing a sold out situation and using such access guarantee it’s typically been at quite the premium price to what I’ve sometimes later managed to pull off at an otherwise lower price (if penalty-free cancellation was still available) for the same service.
When they are willing to book me in during a sold-out or over-sold situation, it’s possibly going to cost the company to potentially displace someone else and thus they may demand more than what I see charged at peak times when the place is busy but not sold out.
But I will say that over the past 20+ years of booking hotels in Sweden, it seems like there is a much bigger range of prices at given properties than there used to be. Hotels have gotten more sophisticated in financially milking consumers when things are really busy, and the Choice/Strawberry hotels are part of the industry in doing so nowadays.
When they are willing to book me in during a sold-out or over-sold situation, it’s possibly going to cost the company to potentially displace someone else and thus they may demand more than what I see charged at peak times when the place is busy but not sold out.
But I will say that over the past 20+ years of booking hotels in Sweden, it seems like there is a much bigger range of prices at given properties than there used to be. Hotels have gotten more sophisticated in financially milking consumers when things are really busy, and the Choice/Strawberry hotels are part of the industry in doing so nowadays.