The Weirdness of Travel Pricing

I'm planning a trip to Belo Horizonte in Brazil. It turns out that flying through Panama is both the cheapest way to get there, and reasonably quick. I was a little reluctant to fly Copa Airlines at first, but a friend convinced me that they're actually really nice. That same friend pointed out that if I get a long layover, I can check out Panama and he might be able to join me for the weekend. Check out Panama on the way to Brazil? Don't mind if I do!

With that booked, I then start looking at hotels. It's only one night, so why not splurge a bit? I hear the Trump is "an experience" and it's only around $250 for one night. Here's when the weirdness starts:

• Go to the hotel's site directly: $219 US + taxes
• Tripadvisor, Bookings.com, Hotels.com, and most other sites: $238 CAN incl
• Otel.com: $197.89 CAD (no idea if this includes taxes or not)
• Go to Kayak, search for the same thing, get an offer from Otel.com for $180.91 incl

For those keeping track, I saved $60 or 25% because I happened to remember that I got a lower price when messing around in the Kayak app yesterday.

Remember: the price is how much they can convince you to pay for something.