full hotel room price before discounts: the full price chargeable for a hotel room before any discounts
©MSN Encarta

this term only shows up online at Encarta and travel glossaries, but a reader suggests it relates to:


rack-rent
(also rack rent or rackrent)
a rent equal or nearly equal to the full annual value of
the property: an excessive or unreasonably high rent;
spec. in English law, a rent of at least two thirds of
the annual value of the property

has anyone come across either term?

No, I haven't ever heard either term.

The landlord who requires rack-rent is a rack monster of a different color.

My first thought was that it is related to the term, "off the rack"; to my knowledge used disparagingly as a comparison to having clothes made. Cheaper, in other words; so that doesn't seem to fit, here.

Could this be from the naval "rack"? The bed for a sailor's use, not necessarily, but usually, at sea.

Behind or alongside a hotel's reception desk there is often a display board that shows, one above the other, the different standards of accommodation available in the hotel with a nightly rate beside each one (single, double, suite etc). I am told that the board used to be called 'the rack', hence the term 'rack rate'. At many hotels it is possible to get a considerable reduction on those rates, but at times of high demand you may end up having to pay the full rack rate. As it happens, I'm going through one of those battles at the moment!