Presuming that the price fixing mentioned in this article is also applied to hotel prices (which the FTC and DOJ are also looking into right now).

I really hate this anti-skeptic rhetoric that's becoming so popular on HN right now. It's like you can't even be suspicious of something without having evidence of it happening. But if you had evidence, you wouldn't be suspicious in the first place!

But the person I'm replying to didn't say "the price fixing mentioned in this article might also be applied to hotel prices". He/she said "Presumably because the CEO is mates with the competing CEO's and they all decide not to undercut each other" which is a pretty specific presumption. One can be suspicious of something without having any actual evidence of course, but if you're going to share your suspicions on Hacker News I think it's reasonable to expect to ask be asked to substantiate them.

You see things like this on planes. Some folks pay a lot, some pay a little. Once the flight's cost is paid for and it's absolutely going, then even $1 is additional profit.