Your Blinkit bill shifts if you have Swiggy installed.

Your Uber fare changes by the minute.

Even your toothpaste costs depend on when you click "Buy."

Yet hotels? Too many still cling to fixed rates.

Guests have evolved. Why haven’t we?

This was the moment it hit me:

Last November, I stayed at a serene riverside hotel in Rishikesh with an amazing location; in the middle of Ram Jhula and Janaki Jhula; 2 minutes walk to Shatrughan ghat. Just loved it there!

My mom and sister are planning a small break in May, and yesterday, I went to book the same room for my mother’s getaway during the upcoming summer holidays.

Same hotel. Same guest (just a different name). Peak season.

Exact. Same. Price.

No surge pricing. No loyalty recognition. No hint of real-time demand logic.

A golden opportunity wasted. They could’ve:

✔ Adjusted for summer holiday demand.

✔ Rewarded a repeat guest (indirectly).

✔ Optimised for their prime riverside location.

Instead? Static pricing in 2025, while Blinkit charges you based on your phone’s battery level.

Meanwhile, Every Other Industry is Playing Chess:

• Blinkit/Zepto Raise or lower prices based on your app usage, location, or even competing apps on your phone.
• Airlines Your logged-in status, search history, and device type change the fare before you click "Book."
• Fintech Loan rates adjust in real-time based on your behaviour.

They are not just selling, they are adapting to evolving consumer behaviours.

What about Hotels? Still debating:

“What’s our Best Available Rate?”

Instead of:

“What’s the perfect price for this guest, right now?”

Most hotels already own:

• Revenue Management Systems (RMS)
• CRMs bursting with guest data
• Direct booking engines

Yet we use them like Excel on steroids, not the AI-powered, real-time pricing engines they could be.

Cannot say if the problem is tech.

But it definitely involves asking the wrong questions with the right tools.

Let Us Call It What It Is:

🔴 Static Pricing: “One rate for all” (1990s logic).

🟡 Dynamic Pricing: “Rates change with demand” (better, but still impersonal).

🟢 Customised Pricing: “The right price for the right guest at the right time” (where we should be).

Guests expect it. Tech enables it.

Who is still stuck?

Follow or comment below:

Is your hotel pricing like it is 2025, or are you still living in a spreadsheet era?