Comments on: Are online travel agencies quoting higher rates because of your Web cookies?

By: john doe

john doe — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:01:14 +0000

I had the exact same issue today across 3 browsers (a higher price on a browser I’d been using to do comparison shopping which persisted even after clearing the cookies and a cheaper rate on each of the other two browsers on my computer). Unless my cookies didn’t really clear, it implies that Hotwire is raising the price for frequent searchers (I’d been checking the prices for weeks) and using IP address, browser type, and search dates in their matching algorithm.

By: tripso.com | Dot bomb! How to handle online travel purchases gone bad

tripso.com | Dot bomb! How to handle online travel purchases gone bad — Thu, 21 May 2009 00:47:14 +0000

[...] leveraging technology to squeeze every last dollar from travelers. Customers contend that Web sites use so-called “cookies” (the crumbs of information you leave behind when you visit a site) to control virtually every [...]

By: envie

envie — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:32:30 +0000

why do you keep looking over and over again anyway? i sorta don’t get the whole debate.

By: Travel News - US Airways 1549 Animation, Revenge of the Whales, Man De-Planes… Early, The Cost of Cookies | Global Visionent Travel Guides

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 07:16:55 +0000

[...] Are online travel agencies quoting higher rates because of your Web cookies? Are online travel agencies quoting higher prices because of your personal information? It’s been difficult to prove that Web “cookies” were being used in that way. Until now, maybe. [...]

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 06:25:02 +0000

I noticed that the price may vary according to country of residence. If you book car rentals online direct from the company website, there is often a check box and they attempt to justify it as some type of insurance matter. But I think it is gero-targeting. It may be reading this from a cookie.

I get really irate with discount airlines in Australia, after selecting a good fare, choosing the flight, and submitting all the passenger and payment details they want, the website tells me the fare is no longer available and I should choose one for $20 more. This has happened more than once even when I really hurry with making the booking. I suspect airlines play with people, using cookies perhaps, to expect people to pay more since theve spent all that time finding the right flight.

By: David Z

David Z — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 05:15:00 +0000

Or they may want to discourage price shoppers (people who log onto Hotwire to get a quote, and then hop over to Expedia or Travelocity to compare prices, and then try to book the Hotwire deal when they find Expedia or Travelocity’s prices were higher).

Heh, good luck with that.

By: The Good Doctor

The Good Doctor — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:22:33 +0000

Or they may want to discourage price shoppers (people who log onto Hotwire to get a quote, and then hop over to Expedia or Travelocity to compare prices, and then try to book the Hotwire deal when they find Expedia or Travelocity’s prices were higher).

By: Carver

Carver — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:49:05 +0000

Another thing that happens with me when booking is that I have certain preferences which are automatically loaded as part of my account. For example, my hotel preference is a king, non-smoking room. When logged in, my preferred sites will ignore all other rooms. However, when I am not logged in and my preferrence not loaded, I see all sorts of cheap rates for twin beds, queen beds, smoking rooms. However, since none of these room conform to my requests, they are ignored when I log in, resulting in higher prices being displayed.

Same with car rentals. When I used to use Yahoo to rent cars, my profile included numbers for Hertz, Budget, and Alamo. as a result, those companies rates topped the list, regardless of whether they were the cheapest of not. When I logged out, I would get the list in a different order. Also, like with Starwood, my frequent renter rate would dominate, even if a cheaper rate was available. The reason was that my rate might have perks, or required for requalification of elite status, etc.

By: David Z

David Z — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:51:28 +0000

He called Hotwire to ask why being logged in would result in a higher price

I had something like that happen to me a few times, this time for a flight.

What happened was I searched for a flight, then saved a record in my account with an airline or travel agency if I couldn’t book it on the spot. The price went up by the time I get around to it.

After seeing this occurring a few more times, I decided to test it. I searched for the same flight I originally saved a record of, but didn’t save it anew.

The price didn’t go up even after I finally booked it. I deleted the saved but unpaid record.

Unfortunately subsequent testing didn’t show any consistency. But a few things I learned since then is just take note of the trip if I really can’t book it there and then, and not expect its price to remain that way by the time I get to it.

By: Irv

Irv — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:22:05 +0000

A really interesting question, and I hope you figure it out. Geo-targeting is definitely a possible reason for the discrepency — sites are getting more savvy about tracking cookies geographically, which is why geo-targeted ads are becoming more and more prevalent. But to pinpoint by zip-code and not just by city–that’s pretty specific, and would require lots of extra data about median income, etc to be synced up with the system. I think a problem with their algorithm is more likely the guilty culprit, as Carver mentioned. If you figure it out, but sure and post!