I'm not fan of dynamic pricing. It creates a class system...the have's and the have not's. A hotel room when the local college is playing a Saturday home game will soar from $200 a night to $350 a night putting attending out of reach for many.
I've just about thrown up my hands with this thread, as it seems to be much more about cultural expectations (expectations of folks who apparently think the customer is always right) than actual economics. However, I do want to push back strongly on the point above.
Dynamic pricing should dramatically reduce the class distinction, not increase it. We tend to think of "class" as purely economic, but class is far from that. Things have value, and money is one way to capture that value,
but not the only way. So let's suppose the other way around, suppose we lived in a world where in the middle of masters week, golf courses must keep their prices flat, period.
Firstly, there would me massive shortage for tee times, so booking tee times would be challenging. Now, you may say, "oh, well just have a lottery" ... but why should a business have a lottery for a bunch of randos when they can reward their loyal customers with the most valuable tee times of the year? Realistically, you still have to look at the incentives, and they would almost certainly lead to visitors being
last in line to get tee times, not first.
Suddenly,
you need to know someone to play these golf courses at these times... Sound familiar? If every there is a class system, it's a world in which you need friends in high places to access goods and services that aren't available to the general public (especially when those goods and services
aren't priced at a premium).
Ironically, high prices --
if they are specifically designed to meet demand -- are a class flattener, not divider. The entire point of dynamic pricing is to incentivize a business to open their doors to everyone. The fact that people want to play golf when the demand is highest is their problem.
Again, none of this is to say that dynamic pricing cannot be used for anti-competitive, exploitative purposes. It can. However, simply increasing price to meet demand is not one of the ways that happens. These golf courses aren't
for visitors. Their business models are built on locals paying a daily rate, thankfully they do open their doors to visitors, even if at a higher rate during peak demand.