The rising price of travel
One of the most strange things about the last few years in Travel have been the prices.
In the past few years, I have literally seen the LOWEST and the HIGHEST prices in travel I’ve EVER seen. Covid really made things jump all over the place..
Now prices are mostly rising, but not universally. I have found some amazing deals here and there. Especially in some destinations and I dug into the deals in another blog, this blog is on why I think prices are going up.
Here are some things driving it.
A lot of hotels, airlines, and other companies barely survived the pandemic. Many are in debt and they are bent on making some money back.
We’ve all noted that for, whatever reason, there are less people available to work, particularly in service positions.
Between “revenge travel” and less available places to travel to, Many destinations have been inundated with travelers, overwhelmed in fact.
Fuel.
Prices have been highest in the luxury arena. Right now I’m looking at a city in Europe where 3 luxury hotels have reigned supreme for some years now. I’m also looking at a small boutique hotel that I very much like. Historically, this hotel is about half of what those elite properties are. Right now, it’s closer to a third to a quarter of them and all four are more expensive than I’ve ever seen.
This WSJ article about Disneyworld/Disneyland, really crystallized this for me. When it comes to high service items. This is the trend. Places are charging more money, to bring more, to fewer people. Disney is a really interesting thing to look at, because it effectively has no competition. Others have tried, but Disney is Disney, other amusement parks just do not compare. Some are better than Disney in some ways, but Disney is unique. Love it or hate it (or love it AND hate it, as I do). What is very easy to see with Disney, is fairly prevalent everywhere. I also will point out that this, for Disney, only really goes to the hotel side. The Parks were BOOMING a veritable army of staff and the hotels don’t even have room service! BOO! Disney, if there isn’t room service is it even really a hotel? I say no! I just got back from Disneyland and the hotel was nice, but no room service and even housekeeping was behind the ball a bit. But with that said, I have one happy little girl, as you can see, if you look at the video on instagram I posted.
Also, I am NOT a Disney Expert.
The only thing I see kind of unifying the better pricing are current exchange rates which are GREAT for the American traveler. I have some research on that in another blog.
