How much? Are you crazy?

To all us plenty of freedom while travelling in the South Island we didn't book our accomodation ahead of time so when we arrived in a new town our first task was to find a motel. We arrived in Hamner Springs and found a nice looking motel in the centre of town. We walked in and inquired whether they had room for us. The lady at the desk said they did and then told us the price...three hundred and fifty dollars a night! We responded no thank you. We'd been staying at all the other motels on our trip for about $130. She refered us to another motel (with a trampoline that the kids loved) just down the street...and we got a room there for $130.

Apparently the first motel's strategy is to set their prices insanely high to catch people who don't know any better or when the rest of the town's motels are full and people don't have a choice. CRAZY!!!