In this travel blog post we explain what the single supplement is and what the ramifications are.
What is the single supplement? Most hotels and cruise ships are priced with 2 persons per room (or cabin) for what is called "double occupancy". For instance, a hotel might be priced at $200 per night double occupancy. That means if it is occupied by two people, the cost per person is $100. If only one person occupies the room, the cost is now $200 per person. Makes sense? So the extra rate for only one person occupying is room is $100. The $100 is the single supplement.
Do some places give solo travelers a relief from the single supplement? On Traveling Professor small group tours, we do give a break to our solo travelers. We really appreciate them traveling with us and we do everything we can to reduce the single supplement. There are tour companies offering tours with no single supplement, but they are few and far between.
Can't hotels give me a smaller single room and reduce or eliminate the single supplement? That's a possibility, but very few hotels have rooms that can only accommodate single travelers.
Is a hotel room the only part of a trip subject to a single supplement? Since hotels are usually the only shared part of a tour, it is usually the only segment that is assessed a single supplement.
Why do hotels charge a single supplement? Isn't that greedy? Hotels need to cover their cost. If they did not charge a single supplement, they would be cutting their revenue in half. Is there any business you know of that could survive by cutting their revenue in half? However if a hotel has a rate of $200 that includes breakfast and only 1 person occupies the room, they should reduce the rate of the room by the cost of the breakfast.
Is the single supplement unfair? When you think about it, for some hotels and especially cruise ships, the single supplement charge might be unfair to them. Let's look at the example of a hotel or cruise ship with 1,000 rooms giving them a capacity of 2,000 people at 2 persons per room. If only 1 person occupied all the rooms, only 1,000 people would be in the hotel or cruise ship. That means less people buying dinners or drinks, less people taking excursions, less people shopping in the gift shop, etc. So these days, sometimes you see cruise companies charging more than the single supplement for solo travelers to make up for that "lost" revenue!
What can be done to avoid the single supplement? Many hostels charge on a per person basis with no single supplement. That might be a way to avoid the single supplement. I don't know about you, but I am at the point where I don't want to stay in hostels anymore.
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