The three-night minimum

Hotel news the week before Labor Day is a spreadsheet wearing a sunset. Three-night minimums. Cancellation windows that punish a change of mind. A rate that looks like a mistake until the taxes land. The room may be fine. The booking is the product being reviewed.

If the stay is already the plan, pay it and stop refreshing. If it is a maybe, the maybe just got expensive. Score the current event: holiday inventory is a squeeze, and the platforms will not save you from the squeeze they helped design. A cheaper Tuesday in two weeks is still a room.

Read the stay dates before you fall for the photo. The photo is not the rate.