Ask HN: Booking.com shows different price for different users

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30135467

by powerapple • 4 years ago

2 2 4 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

HN Community,

I found booking.com have shown different price for me and my friend, as a higher level booking.com user, the price I have is $10 higher (10% mark up) than my friend. I am still using the app to book hotels. I think this probably happens in all apps. What's a viable solution for end users? Always book with unregistered users and have a compare website for hotels? I know this is not a technical question, but it opens up a space for a new app. TripAdvisor probably is fine since it displays different prices from a few providers.

What do you all think? Targeted pricing is reality now.

nllewellyn• 4 years ago

I was always told to access these sites from incognito or a fresh disposable browser session without any anti advertising add-ons, to find the place I wanted to stay, then check the same place against as many browsers (one time only) and friends browsers as I could until I saw the price I wanted, keeping the sessions open. Don't close the window, you may never see the price again.

It's complex, as far as I understand, many sessions on the same place can put the price up as there is elevated interest in the booking, but some users can be gifted an excellent discount for many reasons.

Without tracking cookies or an account, you won't necessarily see the beat deals, but if you spend too long looking and being tracked, the price can go up.

I don't filly understand it and would love to hear if there were any other methods, especially anything more scientific...

powerapple• 4 years ago

I wonder if we can have multiple accounts created based on different personas, compare price and book hotels for clients. In my case, the hotel is selected, the dates are selected, all I need is a compare and book the cheapest one.

It was so annoyed when booking.com says I have 5% extra discount comparing to my friend, and the price is either the same or cheaper on friend's app.