John McLellan: Uproar over £400 budget hotel room misses big picture

In the wonderful world of automated pricing driven by online activity, no wonder the price of a room in an Edinburgh budget hotel can go from £400 on Hogmanay to £40 a week later.

Economy convener Councillor Gavin Barrie

It is, as economy convener Gavin Barrie says, supply and demand, but we don’t know if someone was either mug or desperate enough to pay that amount.

However, that the activity drove the price up to such a ridiculous level is a pretty good measure of the effect of limited capacity versus peak demand.

As Councillor Barrie says, more hotels are in the pipeline and the only way to level off prices is to increase supply.

The issue is what to do with the capacity when £40 reflects demand.

That’s as strong an indication of how much slack Edinburgh still has to take up.