Price gouging typically only applies when it relates to emergency situations such as Tornadoes, Oil shortages, etc. The market dictates the price of motel rooms just like any other commodity. The same reason why people pay thousands of dollars for Super Bowl tickets. Motels will raise the price of their rooms to the the highest amount they think they can sell them for. If people are willing to pay $150 a night for them they will sell them at that price, if no one bites they will lower it slowly until someone does.

In point of fact most motels have higher rates on the weekend than they normally do during the week because they anticipate more people will be staying during the weekend than other times. The only way you can assure yourself of a decent rate is to book your hotel WAY WAY in advance. You can use services such as Priceline.com and book up to 330 days in advance. You can usually get a room for $50-$70 if you book it nearly a year in advance. Now of course you don't know how many rooms you need that far in advance, but you can always sell them if you don't need them.

Believe me Wichita motels/hotels will do the exact same thing given the same situation, so don't be mislead into believing that. In fact I would venture to say that the larger hotels in Wichita are probably owned by the same investment groups or individuals that own the Topeka hotels.