The rack rate is a hotel's official undiscounted room price, used as the reference point from which all other rates are derived.
The rack rate is a hotel’s official undiscounted room price, used as the reference point from which all other rates are derived.
Also called: Best available rate.
How it works#
Almost nobody pays it; what sells is the best available rate, which sits below it and moves daily. The difference decides how a points redemption is judged: valuing an award night against the rack rate overstates what the points are worth by a wide margin. The benchmark is always the price that would genuinely have been paid in cash.
Not to be confused with#
The rack rate is not the same as the best available rate: the rack rate is the fixed ceiling, the best available rate the lowest openly bookable price on the day.
In German#
The German term is Listenpreis. German version of this term
Related terms#
- Rate parity: Rate parity is the agreement that a hotel offers the same room price across all distribution channels and does not undercut the agencies.
- Opaque rate: An opaque rate is an offer where the provider is revealed only after booking, such as an unnamed hotel of a given class in a given district.
- Hotel award category: A hotel award category is the price tier a loyalty programme assigns to a property, from which the points price per night follows.
Articles that use this term#
TopicEvery article and term onBooking and flight search.