That is not fair. It is obviously a mistake and likely on the part of hotels.com and not Best Western.

It is not only hotels but I have seen gas prices jump 30 cents. I hope Doug Gansler is watching.

Heard something similar is happening to some College Park hotels, too. Disturbing, if it isn't a mistake.

You might want to do some further fact checking. I looked on the Best Western web site. Annapolis location rooms are all filled for this evening, but I could have reserved one for tomorrow night for $129- $139. I'd hate to see a business beat up if the facts aren't straight.

There are rooms in the Kent Narrows location for tonight starting around $100

the same thing happened with gas...Sat am Exxon on Hillsmere Dr & Forest was $3.29 for reg...$3.49 Sat pm as we left for dinner. Up to $3.59 as we left later this afternoon. Gas prices are still around $3.30 in Edgewater for those looking.

If it was true ($600/night) and if it was only one night before they changed it to some more reasonable price, I'll speculate that they were probably full and didn't want their phone lines and staff inundated with people looking for rooms.

The best way to give whatever customer service you can to existing guests is to free up the staff.

I'm not a big fan of price gouging but there is supply and demand at work here.

Ice was also a big seller with some grocery stores giving it away as a community service and others pumping up the price.

Wouldn't a simple phone call confirmed or refuted the internet price? You can't always believe what you read on the internet or in print. Multiple types of sources, not just multiple interenet sources which will likely say the same thing because they are all from the same original source.

I can understand charging a premium as their resources will be maxed out and they will likely need to bring in additional staff. However, $600 a night for a non-luxury hotel is just insane and a gross exploitation of a difficult situation.

You've got to be kidding. I have never stayed a Best Western that was worthy of $100/night let alone $600/night. Come to think of it, I've stayed Hiltons, Marriotts, Ritz-Carltons and several 5-star resorts that didn't charge that much.
I'm all for capitalism, but if this was indeed a posted rack rate, then I think an investigation by the Attorney General is in order...especially since it was obviously intended to take advantage of people during moments of loss caused by the storm. Unthinkable!

You've got to be kidding. I have never stayed at a Best Western that was worthy of $100/night let alone $600/night. Come to think of it, I've stayed at Hiltons, Marriotts, Ritz-Carltons and several 5-star resorts that didn't charge that much.
I'm all for capitalism, but if this was indeed a posted rack rate, then I think an investigation by the MD Attorney General is in order...especially since it was obviously intended to take advantage of people during moments of loss caused by the storm. Unthinkable!

Mike. I have a problem with the way you think that during an emergency a private property owner can try to take advantage of the less fortunate. These company's you speak of are licensed by the state of Maryland to do business in this state. The state do's not set the price but the state has the right to protect the individual from being took for every penny they have during a crisis. Is it that you are a business owner in this state and feel you can change your prices at will in a emergency? These company's that do this should be made an example of. There are laws that protect the individual from company's who would do such a sneaky underhanded thing during an emergency.
Anyone with a complaint should send a message to Gansler's office to make the states attorneys office aware of any situation.

Albert, what you have is a problem with the way you fail to think, not a problem with the way I think.

Licensing has nothing to do with anything. That's just a protection racket by the state. Where is your post when boat show businesses charge twice the price for half the money? How come your house wasn't open to refugees on Saturday? Say, for $10. I think that's a fair price. You, the property owner, don't get a vote. Only the mob does. Don't like it? How about we yank your license to own your house?

No one imposed ANYTHING on those who bought rooms for $600. I think it's despicable and stupid of the hotel, but it is NOT criminal. The remedies for dealing with people who do this are PRIVATE remedies. Speak out, don't do business there, lead a boycott. Picket the place. THAT is how one makes an example of these companies.

But a private party OFFERING his private property at ANY rate is **no threat or harm to anyone, and not an act of fraud**. So there is no crime, other than a crime defined by those who presume to OWN the property of others.

Anyone who sends a compaint to Gansler's office is an enemy of private property rights. And doubtless, the photo-op for the politicians will be irresistible and they will wrongly prosecute regardless.

Albert, what does "licensing" have to do with anything? It's a circular argument. The state forces inns to cough up license money...for what reason again? If you want to rent rooms out at your house, why should you need a license. If someone wants to rent, and you want to rent to them...what's the problem?

Anyone who bought a room for $600 is by definition a willing customer, unless someone held a gun to his head. Don't want to pay $600, drive a little further. Just like you can drive further and get to a cheaper gas station.

And what is the "emergency?" Lack of air-conditioning? Lack of power? Did you have air-conditioning? Did you have power? How about we send a bunch of cops over to your house and force you to take in 20 people for the weekend? After all, it's an "emergency" in your eyes.

Yes, it is stupid and probably despicable to charge $600. So fix it the American way, not the Communist China way. Tell the business to pound sand. Organize a boycott.

But just because you don't like what someone says, you should still protect his free speech. Likewise, just because a business behaves badly with its private property doesn't mean you should not protect that private property.

No wonder we have mandatory healthcare insurance at gunpoint in this country...

Albert, we had businesses that worked just fine long before we had licensing. A hotel is not a doctor. What NEED is there for a hotel to have a license? Inspectors don't stop bedbugs and leaks, customer dissatisfaction does. Building inspectors (not anything specific to hotels) are charged with the safety of the electrical and mechanical systems. So, just what does a hotel license do, other than collect money and drive up room costs?

In this instance, your argument for prosecuting the hotel is twofold. First that hotels are licensed and therefore it is wrong for them to charge the rates they want instead of the ones you want. But the existence of a license has zero to do with the ethics either way.

Your second argument is that the consumer needs to be "protected." Who was harmed by the hotel? Who sustained any damages at the hands of the hotel? Answer: no one. Only those who WILLINGLY CHOSE to rent a $600 room, instead of driving to another hotel and renting a cheaper room, stayed there.

If you list your 800 sq ft split foyer for $30 mil, shoud you be jailed if someone buys it?

The way to tackle ths is just like with speech you don't like. Free people don't prosecute people who say things you don't like. Free people willingly ostracize them.

The right approach here is the use of VOLUNTARY measures by free individuals. Tell people what they did. Don't stay there. Organize a boycott.

Unless you want YOUR house seized after the next storm.

Wow Albert, I suppose you can't, given your consistent contempt for private property rights.

How would I feel about a gas station owner changng prices AFTER I agreed to buy at a lower price? That would be breach of contract on his part.

But had the price risen before I'd been quoted a price, I'd be annoyed, but I would simply go elsewhere. Competition and a desire to do business are the ONLY things that truly control prices, with the exception of STRONGARM FORCE.

You are advocating fixed price controls by force. Try communist Russia on for size. TVs were cheap, but few had one and it took years to get because there was no SUPPLY.

BTW, any fool knows hotel prices fluctuate. Try booking on a holiday weekend the day before. If you get availability and a price you like, you'd better BOOK IT ASAP.

Further, you are now arguing a new set of facts. The discussion WAS simply about raising the rates for the night. Not about someone who saw one price and then got another price 10 minutes later when he arrived at the hotel. If he saw a price online, he could have booked THEN, online.

Further, where is the "emergency"? Not having power? Not having air conditioning? If there was any urgent situation, your approach to price fixing only guarantees that the rooms will all be taken by people who don't feel like being uncomfortable, leaving someone with a real health issue with no nearby rooms at any price.

One last point Albert, to answer your questions about licensing. (Above, you said "At what time and place has this state ever not required any business to have a license to operate? Where do you get this info?")

I doubt we had a lot of licenses here 1776 and before. And the ones we did have were either purely forms of taxation (AKA: anyone can run a hotel, you just need to pay), or purely protection rackets (find a way to get in as a crony to the folks in power or we'll shut down your business, just like the mafia).

I said we had lots of businesses that were fine, long before licensing. As for "where I get my info," are you making the case that hotel licensing to protect the consumer from bedbugs and ceiling leaks started and "too-high" prices on the same day in history that the first hotel opened? Where do you get YOUR info?

And again, much of your licensing argument is at best, circular reasoning. We HAVE licensing therefore we SHOULD HAVE licensing. It's always been this way (even though, of course, it hasn't) so it always SHOULD BE this way. The case for licensing is, licensing itself. Circular reasoning, and utter nonsense.

And for anyone tuning in just now, let me say again that I'm not a fan of massively raisng prices at a time like Saturday. However, anyone who thinks the hotel was attempting to gouge people should pursue a PRIVATE remedy (not one through force of law). Spread word of mouth, boycott, whatever. But attempting to point government guns at the business is totally wrong. Just as it's wrong to squelch free speech with government guns. The proper remedy (if there is any) is for the people of like mind to protest, boycott, whatever. And for those who wish to support the business to do so.

It is absurd to think the right answer magically appears when you count hands, and then use the resources of all people to fund government guns to punish the business, against the wishes of many of those people. That's not any ethical form of democracy, it is simply the time-honored tyranny of the majority.

Shame on all the hotels. How about helping somebody in need. My son and daughter in law still don't have electricity, but thank God I do and can help them.
And how about the churches opening their doors for showers and rooms? they do have them.

Many states have price gouging laws. Maryland does not. The AG has supported a law in the past but it has never made it through the General Assembly. Price gouging is legal in Maryland - even the AG's office admits that there is nothing it can do. So before ranting about what Gansler is going to or should do, understand the above. If you don't like it, complain to you legislator, boycott the business or move to New Jersey.

Maybe a list could be compiled and listed in all local newspapers of all the businesses that had complaints filed against them and what the complaints were. Maybe even the name of the manager and or business owner so the people could return the favor.

Maryland should have a law against this and I think most of us have known from the beginning that Maryland has no laws against price Gouging but the fact that there is no law against it do's not make it right to do it just makes Maryland legislators to lazy and stupid to protect the people of this state.

Albert, a list is not "compiled." People compile it. Why don't you do it and leave the AG to spend our tax dollars investigating crimes, not investigating KNOWN non-crimes? The AG has already made it clear it this not a crime.

(As an aside, what I *suspect* the AG will do is simply test the waters to find out if it would be popular to champion a law to stomp on private property rights during power outages, and work from there based on the popularity rather then the principle of private ownership. But I digress.)

Albert, while you are right that just because something is not illegal does not mean it is not wrong, you are skipping some important related truths.

1. Just because something is illegal does not mean it is wrong. When slaves escaped it was illegal for them to do it and illegal for people to help. But it wasn't wrong, and by natural law those other laws were null and void anyway.

2. Just because something is wrong does not mean it should be illegal. The most obvious of these is free speech. People say plenty of bad things, but (most) people understand that putting up with some bad things being said is better than restricting free speech by force. Likewise, just because you don't like the price someone OFFERED (at which apparently no one tried to rent any rooms, BTW) doesn't make it right to squash property rights.

Last, you still haven't addressed at least two key points that have been presented to you many times above in this thread...

The AG keeps records and takes reports so that it can testify as the instances of abuse of and when the law comes before the General Assembly again. To remain ordered, every society needs to provide some protection for it's citizens. I support this type of law. They are generally limited to states of emergency when citizens are most vulnerable. They are reasonably related to an important state interest of protecting the safety and welfare of the people. Businesses should not be permitted to profit from people at their most vulnerable hour. At any other time, give businesses the freedom to set their prices and see how the market perceives then.