Yet Another Cycling Forum
Off Topic => The Pub => Topic started by: Cunobelin on 04 July, 2018, 08:29:05 pm
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I can understand how with different emphasis and different surcharges booking a hotel through various sites can vary... that makes some sense
However I need to nip home for a couple of days and the best hotel is a Best Western
Looked at various sites and there is a 10% variation, fine...
However there is a third discount on the BW site - brilliant
Except on the laptop, it is more expensive that any other option... so back to the tablet and there is a third discount...
So booked on the tablet... but how can a hotel justify a 30% difference on the room depending on the device you use!!!!
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It's probably seeing tracking cookie(s) and determining that you've been shopping around, so raising the prices accordingly, rather than favouring any particular device.
Usual workaround is to fire up pr0n/incognito/privacy mode and see if that makes a difference.
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There have been a whole load of national news items about this subject just in the last week or so - Which mag highlighted it.
The methodology is to delete cookies when you have a range of prices - then go back and see what they quote ... or better still if you have two devices to use at the same time look at the deals on one and then book on the other.
I discovered this years ago when booking with Travelodge - find one room and book at price X - go to book a second room on the same date at the same place and price will be X+ - delete cookies, close browser and start again with a fresh booking and hey presto you get the original price X. The same concept applies to loads of sites - and especially the charming Mr O`Leary`s airline .... do the research, delete the cookies and make the booking.
Have to say I have almost always found that booking direct with the property is better than booking.com, hotels.com, expedia.com or any of the other sites - see what the price range is and go direct. Lots of hotels guarantee to offer rates below the so-called best price sites.
Best Western isn`t a hotel chain but a marketing group (as is Holiday Inn) so again direct to the property is often better than the central booking system (ditto Logis de France and may other groups)
.. and don`t get me started on insurance products with exactly the same cookie scenario
Rob
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Sometimes the old fashioned land line works. I checked Best Western in Bath on tablet and laptop and got the usual ever increasing price.. I phoned them direct and got a much better deal than anything I'd seen on line.
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So booked on the tablet... but how can a hotel justify a 30% difference on the room depending on the device you use!!!!
Europcar is - or was last year, which is the last time I booked a car with them - quite open about offering a 10% discount if you booked through their mobile site rather than the main website.
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It is not unusual for users of Apple devices to pay a bit more than anyone else, as lots of algorithms regard them as wealthier than average.
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It is not unusual for users of Apple devices to pay a bit more than anyone else, as lots of algorithms regard them as wealthier than average.
And yet just over 50% of all smartphones in the UK are Apple.
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It is not unusual for users of Apple devices to pay a bit more than anyone else, as lots of algorithms regard them as wealthier than average.
And yet just over 50% of all smartphones in the UK are Apple.
Yes, it's a good* scam, isn't it.
*as in "profitable"
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It is not unusual for users of Apple devices to pay a bit more than anyone else, as lots of algorithms regard them as wealthier than average.
We are. We're also smarter, more attractive, and better at sex. Scientific facts.
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Some booking sites, if not all, are also monitoring interest and adjusting prices. If you're planning a group trip it isn't a good idea to send a link round and get twenty people to have a look :facepalm:
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Research using $BROWSER, book using $OTHER_BROWSER, where $OTHER_BROWSER is the one you never normally use because you hate it / because it's Microsith / because it's slow*.
What really is a con is airlines who get you 90% of the way through the booking process and then tell you a seat will be forty quid extra. Yes, YOU, Air Canada.
* delete as applicable.
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I saw someone complaining that he'd looked something on Amazon with a pretty old Mac & got one price, then went to book it on a Shiny New Mac and was quoted a higher price. He reckoned they were logging which version of browser or IOS he was using & adjusting prices accordingly.
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It is not unusual for users of Apple devices to pay a bit more than anyone else, as lots of algorithms regard them as wealthier than average.
And yet just over 50% of all smartphones in the UK are Apple.
There was a discussion about this in $IRC_channel a while ago. Various people who administer large-scale WiFi networks for different organisations were able to provide actual statistics, with marked differences. Academic networks saw about 50:50 Apple:Android phones/tablets, with a small but consistent minority of Apple laptops. Hotel WiFi was >90% Apple for phones, with about a 50:50 mix of laptops. The business networks mostly reflected the IT policies of the individual organisations, of course.
Before drawing conclusions you've got to control for who has the sense not to pay for hotel WiFi, but it seems reasonable that you could infer *something* useful about a person's likely hotel use from their choice of operating system, even if it's only "this person is slightly more likely to be a business customer".
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People pay for hotel wifi? Admittedly I was shocked to find I was suppose to pay for wifi on whatever the trains are that go to Leeds these days. Even Southern pony up free wifi. It even sometimes works.
I can't say I've ever much noticed differential pricing via the mothership's Concur system and their 'extensively negotiated prices' and what I find myself either direct or through a booking site.
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Jan and I booked one night in Köln on 13th September. We are travelling home from Salzburg and it's not quite possible to get to Brussels for Eurostar on the same day.
There's some sort of trade conference on. Every room offered by booking.com anywhere near the Hauptbahnhof was at least £500 for one night. We eventually found an AirBnB for £63, very close to the station. Anything under £100 for the night via booking.com would have been at least 4 miles away.
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I have some work taking place in the centre of Milan next week.
2 nights stay for 5 fitters, in a hotel within walking distance of the site.
One hotel quoted me £11k.
We won't be staying there.
Gosh.
Isn't Milan spendy.
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The OP’s point is complicated by the ( often little known) fact that Best Western is only a marketing grouping of independent hotels.
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Place I've stayed in a few times in Klamath Falls OR used to be a Best Western and now isn't. Fortunately the same people are offering the same service, and free home-made choc-chip cookies, as before.
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I found paying by the night at a certain hotel chain worked out cheaper than if I booked a few days at the same time.
Couldn't they force you to check out by 10am and not be able to check back in before 2pm or whatever? i.e. not be able to leave your bags there? (Probably not a problem if you're out during the day and don't want to leave anything in the room.)