Hotels, many of which have their own backup generators, offer a warm night\u2019s sleep when your own home can\u2019t \u2015 but they only have so many rooms for so many people, so prices can spike. <\/p>\n
As Paul Vaughn, a hotel pricing expert, explained, that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean price gouging. That term represents a specific, predatory practice of exorbitantly raising prices during a state of emergency. <\/p>\n
Business Briefing<\/p>\n
By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n That\u2019s illegal, but raising prices to meet demand isn\u2019t. <\/p>\n \u201cHotels work on a supply and demand pricing model, right?\u201d said Vaughn, the director of data operations at Source Strategies<\/a>, a Texas hotel pricing analytics company. \u201cSo if occupancy is very high, they charge a higher rate for the rooms because they\u2019re in higher demand.\u201d <\/p>\n Prices for Friday and Saturday night appear to be somewhat elevated at certain hotels in the region, based on rates posted to Google Hotels. But it\u2019s unclear if that\u2019s related to the storm, or simply because the booking would be last-minute. <\/p>\n In 2021, winter storms caused the worst grid failure in state history<\/a>, leaving millions without power or heat for days on end<\/a>. Folks turned to hotels for relief, but many reported seeing prices in the hundreds \u2014 bordering on a thousand dollars \u2015 as near-term demand created a price surge.<\/p>\n Some of those rates were explained at the time<\/a> as rogue automatic pricing algorithms reacting to unprecedented demand, and few vacancies. But to others, it seemed like price gouging. <\/p>\n If Gov. Greg Abbott declares a state of emergency, hotels are prohibited from raising prices beyond what they would normally be during times with similar occupancy levels. If they do, they are in violation of state law and can be sued by the attorney general\u2019s office, as Ken Paxton did to a San Antonio La Quinta<\/a> in 2021. <\/p>\n \u201cIf the hotel is at a 90% occupancy rate because there\u2019s a big event, the World Cup is in town or something like that, those rooms left are going to be at a premium,\u201d Vaughn said. <\/p>\n \u201cBut if they\u2019re charging those kind of exorbitant rates and the hotel is only half full, that\u2019s when they can really get into trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n Because of this, he doesn\u2019t expect to see unfair prices this weekend. But if the worst happens, and you need a hotel to shelter from the cold this weekend, be on the lookout for unfair pricing schemes. <\/p>\n And if you spot one, you can report it to the Texas Attorney General\u2019s Office<\/a> online. <\/p>\n Collin, Denton and Tarrant counties pause early voting due to the incoming storm.<\/p>\n Friday\u2019s forecast includes falling temperatures and rain, with severe wintry weather expected over the weekend.<\/p>\n North Texas is forecasted to spend over 80 hours below freezing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When ice and snow take the power out, many people look for a hotel to stay in and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[910,102,104,103,918,19758,8374,3512,12398],"class_list":["post-135854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-business","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-economy","tag-evergreen-monthly","tag-fraud","tag-hotels","tag-winter-storm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Local](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/RG2HV6VQ2FB6ZMIJ6I6S5P4PU4.jpg\")
<\/a>Polling stations close in North Texas during D-FW winter storm<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Pedestrians](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769216768_203_32I6WL3HERBRHOI4GHGJWGSQUM.jpg\")
<\/a>Live updates: North Texas braces for hazardous conditions as winter storm moves in<\/a><\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/OIIRHVVCGNAA3OKTMCEPVAC6XU.jpg\")
<\/a>Freezing temperatures are imminent: What you need to know about D-FW\u2019s winter storm<\/a><\/p>\n