The Great Singapore Ripoff

I've always been amazed at the hotels in Singapore, not only are they well kept and staffed, friendly and quite frankly ahead of anything the west has to offer, but I've always been under the impression that they are priced quite reasonably. In fact its one of the reasons that people travel to Singapore because its so affordable. Well, mostly true, you see ....


The problem with Singapore hotels is that although the set their prices at the start of the year for the year, if anything happens such as a convention then prices soar out of all proportion. With the inflated prices I'm surprised anyone bothers. Two times, three times the normal rate are not unheard off.

I'm surprised the government, big brother that it can be, hasn't stepped in and put some sort of a cap on price hikes. I mean these hikes have got to be damaging the tourist industry. It's blatant profiteering, in fact I'd almost go as far as to say its nothing short of theft. And while corporate pockets may be big they are not forgiving. And what about the poor tourist who comes at the wrong time, they are the ones that really suffer along with Singapore's reputation as a relatively inexpensive holiday destination.

Personally I think that once a hotel has set and published its rates for the year, that a cap of x% is imposed during any 3 month period. That way they can't just change it to what they want to charge any time they choose. The x% needs to be fair so that they can make a decent profit, I'm not a total dictator.

But seriously, it is soon going to become a deciding factor when companies hold events here and if it continues as is then tourism will dip and sooner rather than later the fat corporate wallet will become a thing of legend.

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