India’s hospitality and travel sectors are standing today at a dangerous turning point. On one side, we see booming tourism, world-class hotels, expanding air connectivity, and a nation proud of its cultural wealth. On the other side, we see ordinary Indians increasingly pushed out of the very experiences that should define a modern, confident country. The reason is simple: exorbitant, unethical, and unpredictable pricing that has turned travel from a joy into a financial burden. Nothing illustrates this more sharply than today’s reality, where a hotel room costing `10,000 on a normal weekday suddenly jumps to `1.5–2 lakh during a festival, long weekend, or special event. At the same time, domestic flights that normally cost `4,000 climb to `35,000 or even `50,000 without warning. These price explosions are not minor fluctuations. They are violations of trust, fairness, and basic hospitality ethics. Dynamic pricing is understandable when rooted in reasonable market behaviour. But what we see today is not dynamic it is distorted. A hotel that charges `2 lakh for the same `10,000 room has not added luxury, staff, or service overnight. A flight that sells at `40,000 on Friday but `4,000 on Monday has not suddenly faced a tenfold increase in fuel cost. These price hikes are not driven by genuine factors; they are driven by opportunism. It is a strategy built on exploiting demand, not serving it.

The Indian middle class, the backbone of domestic tourism, carries the heaviest burden. Families planning a vacation now hesitate to even begin the search, fearing they will be greeted by shocking hotel and airline rates. A wedding in another city becomes a budget crisis. A student traveling for an exam........

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