Let’s drop the pretense. RealPage didn’t invent “innovation in pricing.” It industrialized collusion. The DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit lays it out: landlords pooled private rent data into RealPage’s algorithm, which spit out “optimized” prices suspiciously higher than what any free market would tolerate. The landlords get cover—the software made me do it—while tenants bleed out. That’s not technology. That’s a cartel in Python.
And anyone in hospitality who thinks this is “just a rental housing problem” should pour themselves a stiff drink. Because your sector is next.
Airbnb: The Algorithm Already Owns You
Airbnb hosts love to think they’re entrepreneurs, but the truth is the platform already controls them. Ignore “smart pricing” nudges and your listing drops like a stone in search. Follow the algorithm, and visibility is your reward. This isn’t market competition; it’s algorithmic extortion with a smiley UX.
Hotels pretend they’re still in charge, clinging to revenue management systems where managers can “accept or reject” recommendations. But that’s theater. Anyone who’s played the OTA game knows the veto is hollow.
Doomsday: When Google and Booking Pull a RealPage
Here’s the nightmare: search platforms—Google, Booking, Expedia—decide to go full RealPage. They already control discovery, ranking, and conversion. Now imagine if they set the price, too. Hotels and hosts don’t “choose” their rates; they simply become data inputs for the machine. Refuse, and you disappear.
We’re closer than most admit. Airbnb already runs this play. OTAs already decide who lives or dies on page one. Google already eats the travel funnel alive. Stitch those powers together, and pricing autonomy is gone—forever.
And don’t delude yourself that consumers benefit. Prices won’t magically drop. They’ll float up, harmonized and justified by a black-box algorithm you’ll never see.
Regulators: Decades Behind the Curve
The DOJ is finally taking its swing at RealPage. New York is circling. California blinked and backed off. A few cities—San Francisco, Jersey City, Philadelphia, Seattle—have already banned algorithmic rent-setting. But this is trench warfare against an army that’s already inside the castle.
If RealPage is collusion in housing, why isn’t Airbnb’s “smart pricing” under the same microscope? Why aren’t hotel RMS tools being questioned? Regulators pretend these markets are different. They aren’t.
The Slumlord-in-Chief Problem
And here’s the real kicker: consumer protection now sits under Donald Trump—a man who made his fortune as a slumlord, who stiffed tenants, contractors, and regulators with equal enthusiasm. The president isn’t just indifferent to this fight—he embodies the behavior the DOJ is trying to prosecute.
What do you think his administration’s appetite is to crack down on algorithmic rent-gouging or collusive hotel pricing? Answer: none. Less than none. The fox isn’t just guarding the henhouse—he’s tripling the rent on the coop and selling eviction notices as NFTs.
The Takeaway
RealPage is just the test case. Housing is the warm-up act. Hospitality is waiting in the wings. And with a slumlord in the White House, don’t expect the curtain to fall in the consumer’s favor.
So enjoy the illusion while you can. Because once search owns the price, whether you’re a landlord, a hotelier, or a traveler, your only role is simple: shut up, pay up, and thank the algorithm for its “efficiency.”
Sources
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DOJ lawsuit against RealPage: justice.gov
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DOJ adds six large landlords: justice.gov
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White House Council of Economic Advisers: renters paid $70 extra/month, $3.8B nationwide in 2023 (whitehouse.gov)
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Wired: The Apartment Rental Market Is Rigged by Algorithms (wired.com)
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Reuters: US sues Cushman & Wakefield, other landlords over alleged rental price coordination (reuters.com)
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Wikipedia overview of legislative bans: RealPage entry
Slumlord: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_Parc
