How Booking.com manipulates users • Hacker News Board

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#41

Post by rconti » Thu, Sep 21, 2017, 12:18 AM UTC

sturgill wrote: post #20

edejong wrote: post #5

This is what A/B testing does to a popular site. You test for immediate customer engagement but cannot (easily) test long-term customer loyalty. This is why booking.com has become the largest online hotel booking site in several continents. Nevertheless, I think it will eventually be their downfall.

"Frankly, I don’t think I am going to stop using Booking.com. I am not aware of any other service with a comparable number of properties and reviews." It's hard to quantify negative impact of future dealings, but it's even harder to say Booking.com should change their methods when the people aware enough to be annoyed continue to give them money. It's like complaining about Google following you around the web and usi…

If anything, booking.com feels like one of the worst whenever I use it. I vastly prefer tripadvisor, for example, even though their iOS app is a horrible unusable battery drain.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#42

Post by TheAceOfHearts » Thu, Sep 21, 2017, 12:19 AM UTC

On the subject of fake reviews, I've recently started using Fakespot [0] with Amazon and Yelp. Sometimes making a decision for which goods to buy can be tricky, so it's really helpful to filter out a few shady options. Although, honestly, I don't think it makes much difference in most cases.

Are there any trusted review services for travel locations? Something like Consumer Report, but for travel. Although I don't know where their quality levels stand nowadays, I know my parents used to swear by em 10 to 20 years ago.

[0] https://www.fakespot.com

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#43

Post by dawnerd » Thu, Sep 21, 2017, 12:21 AM UTC

tmulc18 wrote: post #8

That's why you gotta use Expedia or Google

Pretty much all of Expedia owned sites do this too. Hard to avoid when Expedia/Priceline own most of them.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#44

Post by dawnerd » Thu, Sep 21, 2017, 12:22 AM UTC

I've just been booking directly from hotels I trust because of this. Used to use hotels.com but they've gotten really bad recently. Can costs a bit more from the hotel but most of the time price is on par. End up getting more room upgrades when booking directly anyways - at least with hilton.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#45

Post by xiaoma » Thu, Sep 21, 2017, 12:32 AM UTC

colmvp wrote: post #11

I noticed Udemy also manipulates users by saying that x course is 80-90% off but only for one more day!!!!... until you realize it's been that exact same price for weeks/months. I understand it's not new to have the retail price be higher than the 'sale' price (for example, clothes and furniture), but even at clearance outlets, the price difference while large is rarely as dramatic nor as prolonged.

They've actually improved, too! It used to be $499 courses regularly marked down to $15 and similar ridiculous discounts. It wasn't just limited to people using coupon sites either... Udemy was mailing the crazy discounts to people all the time back in 2014-2015.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#46

Post by xcasperx » Thu, Sep 21, 2017, 12:33 AM UTC

feelin_googley wrote: post #38

What if the manpulation was easily avoidable? The last time this website came up on HN (same issue), I conducted an experiment. The annoyances and manipulation described by the blogger sounded like it relied on Javascript and graphics. I wanted to see how far I could get without using a graphical browser. I was able to 1. search hotels, 2. return a list of properties in CSV/JSON/TXT, 3. return prices and 4. book. It…

Can you post your code?

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#47

Post by kristianc » Thu, Sep 21, 2017, 12:35 AM UTC

Wow - the New Union. I live in Manchester and the place is literally right at the top end of one of Manchester's main clubbing districts (the gay village). "Lively and central" is an understatement. It has a ropey reputation locally as a pub, but you couldn't pay me to stay there. I can see why he's pissed.

I will caveat that I've had some excellent experiences with Booking, but always with very careful cross-referencing with other sites.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#48

Post by dreamfactored » Thu, Sep 21, 2017, 12:37 AM UTC

hw wrote: post #6

I've always wondered if some of these tactics are kosher and legal. Especially the ones that say 'someone just booked this' or the notifications on ecommerce sites that say 'X bought this in the last hour'. Most of the ecommerce ones are just fake data meant to entice the shopper into buying into urgency.

Probably super illegal when they are selling to EU citizens

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#49

Post by phil248 » Thu, Sep 21, 2017, 12:51 AM UTC

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #42

On the subject of fake reviews, I've recently started using Fakespot [0] with Amazon and Yelp. Sometimes making a decision for which goods to buy can be tricky, so it's really helpful to filter out a few shady options. Although, honestly, I don't think it makes much difference in most cases. Are there any trusted review services for travel locations? Something like Consumer Report, but for travel. Although I don't kn…

I use TripAdvisor and Google Maps. I don't know how people feel about their reputations, and I worry about TripAdvisor because they are pivoting more towards being like Booking.com.

But when I was in Havana, we wandered in to a string of terrible bars, cafes and restaurants over the first couple days. So we went to a hotspot and downloaded the offline TripAdvisor. We wouldn't go to a place unless TripAdvisor gave it a decent rating. After that, we had nothing but great experiences.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#50

Post by troydavis » Thu, Sep 21, 2017, 12:52 AM UTC

zodPod wrote: post #19

troydavis wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's the FTC's "truth in advertising" guide, which has links to the primary-source documents: https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/adv... The most questionable mainstream ad I've seen recently is by Amazon.com, which somehow manages to convince employees that it's "Earth's most customer-centric company" while concurrently using some of the sleaziest dark patterns of any merchant, small or large.…

If that legitimately violates the FTC's rules then I've seen a lot of sites in worse violation. Because honestly that $99/yr is pretty obvious in that screenshot. It definitely doesn't make it obvious but it is in plain text on that site.

Quoting from the FTC page that I linked to:

> Nor can advertisers use fine print to contradict other statements in an ad or to clear up misimpressions that the ad would leave otherwise. For example, if an ad for a diet product claims "Lose 10 pounds in one week without dieting," the fine-print statement "Diet and exercise required" is insufficient to remedy the deceptive claim in the ad.

> …

> Most importantly, if you are concerned that a disclaimer or disclosure may be necessary to clarify a claim, evaluate your ad copy and substantiation carefully to ensure that you are not misleading consumers.

Obviously it's subjective whether this ad violates any FTC laws (and presumably, Amazon's legal counsel reviewed it and deemed it worth the risk), but presence of a statement in fine print (or as you stated, that "it is in plain text") isn't the deciding factor.