For months, a small hotel here in Connecticut featured a sign that read “Name your own price – up to 50% off.” The General Manager must either be desperate or a big William Shatner fan. I can understand the consumer’s interest in finding the lowest price, that’s rational economics; but when hoteliers get on board and try to give away rooms, its not revenue management it’s just race-to-the-bottom... 

After suffering through a year that PhoCusWright analyst Jake Fuller called “one of the worst years for the hotel industry since World War II,” the global hospitality industry is searching for a 2010 outlook and looking for signs of hope in the numbers. The data, however do not paint the pretty picture that most were hoping for. Forecasts have been cautiously described as ‘less bad,’ but effectively...