Price Gouging

[JBloggs]

Volcano flight chaos leaves many passengers broke[/h1]
SYDNEY (AP) — Andrew and Debbie Jackman of Britain spent more than two years saving up for their family vacation to Australia. They probably wish they'd saved a little longer.
On Friday, they found out their Qantas flight from Sydney to Britain had been canceled thanks to a volcano erupting in Iceland. So the Cambridge couple and their two teenage sons squeezed into a 150 Australian dollar ($138) hotel room to wait out the night. On Saturday, the hotel raised the price of the same room to AU$350 — simply because it could, Andrew said ruefully. After endless negotiations, the hotel brought the price back down to AU$160, but the family, broke and frustrated, opted to move Sunday to a hostel.
Full article here

 

[JBloggs]

Airlines are laying off employees, $200+ million per day loss due to this Volcano. The ripple effect from this will be seen a long long time and far spread.
Social Media is really kicking in to assist those stranded to find accommodations.
Apparently a second Volcano - the angry sister in Iceland Hekla is feared to erupt.
I wonder who bought insurance and how it will work out when the 'smoke clears'?
Scotland, these have formed the landscape of your country in the past, please keep us posted on any changes seismically that you are hearing there. Wonder if this has to do with the big quakes in Mexico lately. Boy this is really something.
It does affect us and our businesses, we need to keep abreast of all this if we can.

 

[Innkeeper To Go]

JB, we not only need to keep abreast of all of this, we need to remain mindful that we are in a position to help stranded passengers.
There but for the grace of God and all that.
When guests are flocking to an inn in normal times, it makes perfect sense to raise prices. And certainly our industry right here in the old US of A can use a boost.
But this is one time when we all need to remain mindful of our responsibilities and ensure we're giving travelers a fair shake. Or, if we can, a break.

 

[rrh]

We had a couple of stranded Brits in this weekend. This is our slow season and we were happy we could accomodate them, no gouging included...

 

[Joey Camb]

that's a bit harsh price gouging like that my mum and dad were stranded in Amsterdam as they were flying out to see me when I was studing in America as they chose september 11th to fly. At least the Amsterdam people budged a bit but they had to stay in a hostel and share a room with strangers and it was truly horrible. I would be sympathetic because of that.

 

[egoodell]

that's a bit harsh price gouging like that my mum and dad were stranded in Amsterdam as they were flying out to see me when I was studing in America as they chose september 11th to fly. At least the Amsterdam people budged a bit but they had to stay in a hostel and share a room with strangers and it was truly horrible. I would be sympathetic because of that..

that's a bit harsh price gouging like that my mum and dad were stranded in Amsterdam as they were flying out to see me when I was studing in America as they chose september 11th to fly. At least the Amsterdam people budged a bit but they had to stay in a hostel and share a room with strangers and it was truly horrible. I would be sympathetic because of that.

That is terrible. I don't believe in raising prices just because it's a busy season. And when it's an unforseen emergency like this I would give the travelers the best break I could possibly give. Very bad form
Riki

 

[ginocat]

Bad story! My friends stuck in Belgium have not experienced gouging at all.