Too much money for overnight stay!

pianotuna wrote:
Before my parents had an RV, my father would routinely go to motels when we were stopping for the night and negotiate a lower price.

He was quite often successful as we would drive until about 8:30. That meant the motel was unlikely to fill the room, so they were willing to be flexible on pricing.

And how many years ago was that? Things have changed. Most hotels are not one off family affairs. Often they have corporate ownership with rules regarding pricing. Desk clerks are often employees with little to no ability to offer pricing discounts. I don't empower my staff to offer discounts and I am far from alone in this regard. It creates a whole other world of problems. Things like it may lead to customer dis-satisfaction, an overall decline in profitability, accounting issues, employee trust issues etc. etc. Not as easy or clear cut as you make it out to be.