Is 'dark UX patterns' the new meme for something that has already been around for >15 years?
Bad UX: How Booking.com deceives clients
11–20 of 154 posts
Re: Bad UX: How Booking.com deceives clients
#12Can someone actually comment on the issue in the article instead of dropping random anecdotes? Sounds like a bug rather than a dark pattern?
EDIT: The submission title said something about Booking.com using dark patterns but it has been changed now.
Re: Bad UX: How Booking.com deceives clients
#13It's a FOMO machine.
I use it to find places, filtering by "wifi available", and then contact them directly.
Re: Bad UX: How Booking.com deceives clients
#14Even as a host using booking.com I dislike many shady things they put you through but at the end of the day these dark patterns must work in practice as there is no other platform that delivers even closely as many guests as booking.com.
What are some alternative sites that send you guests? I have used hotels.com sometimes (has dark patterns too, but fewer of them). I would definitely prefer using something that was more...sensible.
I would naïvely think that booking directly with hotels would be cheapest, but I have definitely seen deals on these aggregators that were unavailable on the same hotel's own site – which is the only reason I even think about using them.
Re: Bad UX: How Booking.com deceives clients
#15Booking is the website with the highest density of dark patterns per pixel I've ever seen. Red texts hurrying you to make a reservation in virtually every on the page ("only 2 rooms left", "someone just made a booking", "12 people looking", "Booked N times today", "You're lucky to see this room, normally it's booked!", "You're lucky to see it for $50, normally it's more expensive" etc.). All of those texts are flashi…
I've seen this dark pattern at Agoda.com first. They have been doing it for a long time.
[deleted]
Re: Bad UX: How Booking.com deceives clients
#16Booking is the website with the highest density of dark patterns per pixel I've ever seen. Red texts hurrying you to make a reservation in virtually every on the page ("only 2 rooms left", "someone just made a booking", "12 people looking", "Booked N times today", "You're lucky to see this room, normally it's booked!", "You're lucky to see it for $50, normally it's more expensive" etc.). All of those texts are flashi…
I've seen this dark pattern at Agoda.com first. They have been doing it for a long time.
Agoda and Booking are owned by Priceline Group, so this makes sense.
Re: Bad UX: How Booking.com deceives clients
#17This happened to me with Expedia. They advertised a lower rate on a different room at the hotel I was looking at... Didn't catch until after I checked out that the advertisement was for a different day than my search results. (Because obviously I'm just as happy to stay at a random hotel just off the interstate in rural Ohio a week after my trip as during it?)
Thankfully, Expedia has good customer service and fixed things for me, even though it was not a cancelable reservation.
Re: Bad UX: How Booking.com deceives clients
#18Even as a host using booking.com I dislike many shady things they put you through but at the end of the day these dark patterns must work in practice as there is no other platform that delivers even closely as many guests as booking.com.
What are some alternative sites that send you guests? I have used hotels.com sometimes (has dark patterns too, but fewer of them). I would definitely prefer using something that was more...sensible. I would naïvely think that booking directly with hotels would be cheapest, but I have definitely seen deals on these aggregators that were unavailable on the same hotel's own site – which is the only reason I even think a…
[deleted]
Re: Bad UX: How Booking.com deceives clients
#19What do you expect, from an entity that advertises via spreading malware/PUPs? https://blog.malwarebytes.com/detections/pup-optional-bookin...
"Potentially Unwanted Program"? That's a polite way of putting it.
> PUP.Optional.Booking
> This is the detection for a family of potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) that show advertisements hailing from the booking.com domain. This PUP predominantly uses scheduled tasks to trigger the advertisements.
Wouldn't mind seeing that looks like. Regardless, "scheduled tasks" definitely sounds like unsolicited EXE execution, which is firmly on the "no thanks" side of shady.
Re: Bad UX: How Booking.com deceives clients
#20Try searching for a hotel room 6+ months ahead. Oslo end of February 2018. "14 people are looking right now. In high demand! Booked 124 times in the last 24 hours. Latest Booking: 3 minutes ago" "In high demand – only 3 rooms left on our site!" "Someone just booked this In high demand!" "Limited supply in Oslo: 3-star hotels. 4 hotels like Best Western Karl Johan Hotel are already unavailable on our site!" "3 other p…
That was a good one :D , system didn't even realize its trying to fake too much.