See all the folks flying in first class on the plane?
Most of them are doing it on your dime.
Alright you stupid ****, you really don't know what you are talking about, and now I'm going to school you...
What do you know about airline operations? What do you know about pricing strategies? Answer: You don't know shit. On the other hand, I know quite a damn bit. See, when it comes to rates and inventory management airlines operate in a nearly identical fashion as hotels. I happen to work in the hotel industry, and I know exactly what goes on in these scenarios and I can tell you that you are so far off the ******* mark it's downright shameful that you've even opened your mouth.
My credentials:
Eight years of extensive hotel experience with primary emphasis in rooms and operations; have traversed multiple properties among some of the top companies in the world, and internationally established brands; primary emphasis on full service Four Diamond properties, though also have participated in the select service markets as well; a documented history of progressive development while also taking on inter-divisional responsibility; inter-property departmental management; divisional supervisory experience; current position as Assistant General Manager with a medium sized hotel directly overseeing Front Office and Housekeeping departments while liaising with corporate revenue management.
A hotel's inventory is composed of
room nights; a room night is one room for one night. If a person books one room over three nights, they are purchasing a total of three
room nights. If a person books three rooms over two nights, they are purchasing six room nights.
A hotel's inventory is perishable. If a hotel has 10 rooms that go vacant on a given night, then the hotel has lost 10 room nights that it will never again have the opportunity to sell. The ultimate goal of the hotel is to sell out every single night. Of course, this is not likely to happen. So the next goal is to sell as many room nights as possible, and to sell each room night at the highest rate at which you can convince people to buy. The main challenge here is that different people will be willing to buy at different prices. This is where
yield management comes into play. In determining the optimum rates at which to sell, a hotel must forecast market demand at specific times and attempt to capitalize on that demand for each room night.
Thus, rates for a given room night are always variant. If the rates for a given room night are set too high, fewer people will buy and it will become necessary for the hotel to lower rates to solicit additional customers in order to increase occupancy as the specified date approaches. If rates are too low, the hotel will leave revenue on the table. Successful yield management requires operations and revenue managers to employ accurate estimations on the likelihood that new reservations will continue to be made when rates are set at a certain point.
This is where
room class comes in. John may be willing to pay $200 for a room night, but Bill may only be willing to pay $150 for the same room night. Meanwhile, Frank may be willing to pay $250 for a room on the same night, but only if he receives a higher level of product that than what John and Bill are looking for. Therefore, hotels offer a diversity of
room types, some of which constitute higher and lower
room classes. So John buys a $200 room night in a standard room, Frank buys a $250 room night in a suite. Bill doesn't buy a room night because he's not willing to pay the advertised rate. Eventually the hotel realizes that the chances of rooms going empty is increasing as the date of interest approaches, and they begin advertising lower rates. Bill eventually buys a room night at $175, because as time has elapsed he has become more willing to pay more instead of risking not finding anything at all and having to sleep in his car.
On the other hand, there are also times when there will not be enough market demand to fill room nights in room classes that are priced higher than standard rooms. This is where
room class overbooking comes into play. If all standard rooms have been booked for a certain day, but there are still several upgraded rooms that are available, the hotel will typically play both sides of the fence by continuing to advertise both room categories as available, at their respective rates. There is still a chance that someone may be willing to buy the room night at the higher rate. But in case nobody is willing, the hotel will continue to offer room nights at the lower class rate as long as the overbooking can be balanced against whatever higher class rooms go unbought. The hotel will simply provide complimentary upgrades to a few lucky customers. Often times, the recipients of complimentary upgrades will be pre-selected based on multiple criteria, such as total duration of stay (it's easier to upgrade a one-nighter because tomorrow night the higher room class might be sold out already). But one of the key factors that is taken into account is their rate. The more money I'm making from you, the greater preference you receive when I hand out complimentary upgrades.
And that brings us to the issue of
customer loyalty. Modern business practices have recognized that
keeping customers is cheaper than
finding new customers (at least, smart businesses have realized this; some industries such as cell phone service providers seem to have not figured this out very well). In a free market where there is ample competition, promotions that encourage
loyalty generally produce a better return on investment than promotions that solicit new customers. Thus,
loyalty rewards programs have become common place in our modern world. These programs encourage loyalty, and reward those who demonstrate the greatest degrees of loyalty. One of the easiest and cheapest ways to reward higher tier loyalty members is to give them first preference for upgrades. It's not just cheap, it's actually completely free because the hotel doesn't forgo any opportunities to sell higher rated rooms. If someone is willing to buy the room class that has a higher rate they will have the opportunity to do so. If not, we will give high loyalty customers a complimentary upgrade and in doing so reemphasize to them why they should remain loyal to us.
So your wild idea that people who are in lower class accommodations are somehow subsidizing those who are in higher class accommodations is absolute horseshit. It's born of your complete and total ignorance. The only thing that prevents your notion from being absolutely laughable, is just how pathetically sad it is.