Five Questions About Last Minute Lodging Bookings

Reading this piece about how much the booking window (how far in advance a guest confirms the booking) for hotels has continued to decrease raised more questions than I realized I had... "A recent Priceline survey showed that 60 percent of customers with mobile web access booked their stays within 20 miles of their lodging. Of those travelers, more than a third confirmed bookings just one mile from their hotel." according to: Fighting the Incredible Shrinking Booking Window | ehotelier.com News Archives.

1. Is this nuts or what?

2. Or do people just not really care where they stay?

3. Or has the traveling public bought all the press about "last minute deals" during the last 3 years of recession?

4. Or is it because we CAN book last minute as the author suggests?

5. What happens when the economy recovers and there is no room at the inn? Will the quality of service at lodging establishments decrease because management cannot plan staffing adequately?

Bonus Question: When do vacation rental managers get an automated RevPar based pricing model in their property management systems based on mathematical modeling, not our guts? Escapia has a clumsy tool, but it's far from the norm.