Four people can quote four prices for the same room

A guest calls and is quoted a rate. The same room, the same night, quoted by a different person an hour later, is a different number. Both staff are doing their best from what they have.

Why the printed sheet fails

Because rates change more often than sheets get reprinted, and the previous version does not get thrown away. Front desk keeps the one they trust, which is usually the one they have used longest.

Discretion is fine; invisibility is not

Letting the desk close a booking with a discount is good business. The problem is when the discount is applied by quoting a lower number, because then the hotel cannot tell the difference between a rate change and a concession.

Recorded as a discount against a standard rate, the same flexibility becomes measurable.

The comparison that matters

Direct rates against what the channels are showing. Hotels regularly discover they are undercutting themselves directly while paying commission elsewhere, which is the worst of both arrangements and is invisible without one rate table.