Inflation & Prices

Why Airfares, Hotels and Cars Are Getting So Expensive for Americans

  • Strong demand, staff shortages means more pricing power
  • Carmakers, airlines, hoteliers continue to raise prices
Expedia CEO: Travel Is at Top of List for ConsumersPhotographer: Sergio Flores/Bloomberg

Companies from automakers to hoteliers keep on sacrificing sales volume – sometimes by design, sometimes by necessity – in favor of higher prices, a dynamic that will test the Federal Reserve’s efforts to rein in inflation.

The latest set of earnings showed that businesses aren’t likely to walk away from a strategy Corbu LLC’s Samuel Rines calls “price over volume” adopted by certain industries at the height of the pandemic, when supplies and labor were both hard to come by.