Most of the time, there are certain blocks of rooms that are held for specific discounts. So if there is a special PIN that's circulating around, there may only be a designated number of rooms attached to that PIN offer. Same thing with the AP rate rooms (not the AP 10% discount, but the good rates) - they hold a certain number of rooms at all 3 hotels just for the AP rate people, so the number of available rooms is limited.
Based on that, I kind of get the feeling that what DLR is doing - and I have no proof of this, but it's a strong guess - is holding more rooms for the people who are booking at the regular rack rates, so they can make more money, and designating fewer rooms for the PIN discounts and AP holders. They've had so many good discounts and promos in the last two years - the 'get 5 for 3 deal' is one of the best ones, but there have been lots of them - that, chances are, DLR is trying to compensate now by cutting back on the highly discounted rooms in peak seasons, like the AP rate rooms. They are probably holding out as long as they can to see how many bookings they can get at the regular prices (or with the minor discounts like 10%) before they release any rooms at the good AP rates.
I think that's why last year and this year, the AP rates seem to be much slower in coming out. Again, I could be wrong, but I just have a hunch that they are holding out on releasing AP rates until they can get tons of regular rack rate bookings. Basically, this is the backlash of things like the 'get 5 for 3' deal during the rest of the year.
Essentially, as long as DLR is still offering any kind of discount (365 days a year, no less) to AP holders, they can fulfill that promise for AP discounts, which is part of the AP 'package' that we all buy into. They can tell us that they may not always have the 'real' AP rates available, but that AP holders get 10% off 365 days a year.
