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How Booking.com manipulates users

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Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#191

Post by kingosticks »

p49k wrote: post #117
kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately for us (and fortunately for TicketMaster), there usually is no alternative to them. That doesn't hold true for Booking.com

Do you know any alternatives? Because last time I looked, every booking site I could find was also owned by the same company that owns Booking.com, other than Expedia, which is also a terrible site that uses dark patterns and other scamminess.

Lastminute.com and TripAdvisor.

I never make any hotel decision based on booking.com information, other than their price. To be fair, the clue is in the name, make your decision elsewhere and then come back and use them to make the actual booking (assuming it was cheapest). I appreciate this keeps them and their dodgey tactics going but I'll pay that price.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#192

Post by LeonM »

I tried scraping booking.com once, it quickly became obvious that they use many 'dark patterns' in tricking visitors into booking quickly. Not using cookies was the most efficient method in discovering the 'real' price of an accomodation.

But is not just booking.com, 99% of airline ticket sites use the same techniques.

Basically what they do is raising the price on each subsequent visit, sometimes also lowering the amount of 'available' tickets. This creates a sense of urgency.

My advise is always: shop for the hotel/ticket/whatever you like, then open that URL in a new private/incognito tab, so you get a lower price.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#193

Post by _jgdh »

fakalaka wrote: post #151
_jgdh wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In India Booking is known as the company you want to call when you want to visit Europe. The questions they ask in the phone screen are relatively simple by Indian standards so it's straightforward to get tickets and travel to Amsterdam. They don't seriously consider working there because perl isn't the only thing unappealing about Booking. The pay is so mediocre that Indian devs would prefer to stay in India rather…

I'm courios about the salary offered. In Amsterdam Booking is known to be paying above the market average. Their salary range is also listed stack overflow careers page. Are salaries really that hight in India?

In India there are two kinds of software jobs - the ones at outsourcing firms like Infosys and the ones at firms that make their own products like Google, Flipkart, Amazon, Uber, Ola etc. The former pay the minimum possible, of the order of $15-20k a year. A mid-level engineer at the latter can expect to earn $50-60k easily, plus stocks. Booking offers something similar, at a significantly higher cost-of-living.

If these engineers want to move abroad, they'd usually prefer the US because salaries there are significantly higher.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#194

Post by lmm »

abruzzi wrote: post #77
aianus wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am not aware of any other service with a comparable number of properties and reviews. Why do you need so many properties and reviews? You're staying in one room, presumably. You just need at least one room with a few good reviews in your price range and you're good to go.

I find it strange too, though that may be because of the type of locations I stay. I don't seen any reason for customer loyalty to a single booking site. There is very little friction to just use the hotels own booking sites. For each town I stay in there is usually two or three hotels to choose from that have online booking (occasionally I have to make a phone call to book since there are no hotels with online booki…

> I don't seen any reason for customer loyalty to a single booking site. There is very little friction to just use the hotels own booking sites.

Each site has its own layout and functionality. I like to use the same site every time so that the buttons will always be in the same place, I know how to sort by my criteria, the customer service number is already in my phone...

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#195

Post by avodonosov »

djsumdog wrote: post #103

I thought about interviewing for them in Amsterdam. The recruiter put me in touch with one of their people and she explained to me everything was in Perl, there were little to no automated tests and developers often pushed straight to production. I said I had only worked in perl shops that were migrating from it to Scala or Python. She said, "Well we have no intention of moving." Like I say with all recruiters, I sai…

Perl is a bad language suddenly? Pushing to production is a bad practice?

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#196

Post by _jgdh »

roel_v wrote: post #152
_jgdh wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In India Booking is known as the company you want to call when you want to visit Europe. The questions they ask in the phone screen are relatively simple by Indian standards so it's straightforward to get tickets and travel to Amsterdam. They don't seriously consider working there because perl isn't the only thing unappealing about Booking. The pay is so mediocre that Indian devs would prefer to stay in India rather…

There are quite conflicting reports on pay there, and from what I can tell from their stackoverflow job postings, they're above average. What sort of pay would you expect in India for a job like this?

As I explain here (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15301468), the Indian devs that Booking targets earn comparable salaries at a lower cost of living. If these devs are willing to move abroad, they'd move to the US.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#197

Post by crypt1d »

dvt wrote: post #175
EasyTiger_ wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about being a grownup and actually take the damn call? Could you not just tell him you weren’t interested rather than being so ignorant? For a whole month I mean, really?

Part of being a grownup is doing whatever the hell you want. If you don't want to pick up that phone (and have a potentially awkward conversation with some sleazebag recruiter that's trying to sell you on a shit job you don't want), don't . This reminds me of the people that think women (or men) that don't want to go out with them owe them some kind of explanation. No, dude. Get some social awareness and move the fuc…

Sure, you can do whatever you want. That doesn't change the fact that people will consider u a prick and a coward if you ignore calls for weeks on end without any explanation.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#199

Post by sleavey »

flexie wrote: post #132
erikb wrote: post #120

Being a little disillusioned about the world these days I would assume this has a purpose. My guess is this: Booking.com already knows that they are fighting a losing battle against AirBnB. So instead of trying to win it seriously, they go to make the biggest profit they can out of their situation by strongly focussing on the idiots. With idiots you have two advantages: (a) they stay anyways no matter how shitty you…

In Europe, I would say the opposite is happening. AirBnB is being pushed out of or held down in many cities by local authorities. In the last two years I have stayed 50 nights or so in rooms booked through Bookings.com or Hotels.com and only 2 nights in rooms booked through AirBnB, and it's now almost two years ago. I had a good stay in the ArBnB booked apartment but the only reason I used AirBnB in the first place w…

> AirBnB is fun to try but I wouldn't rely on someones apartment for my vacation.

Especially when the host might just cancel at the last minute. In that case, all the customer gets is a refund on the accommodation, but not on the full trip which might be ruined.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#200

Post by jacalata »

odiroot wrote: post #133
Osmium wrote: post #22

To anyone from Booking.com reading this: I'll go elsewhere next time I need to book a room. Dark patterns may help profits in the short-term, but they're terrible for your brand. Just ask TicketMaster. It isn't just tech-savvy users that will catch on to this either. If an everyday user uses Booking.com, reads reviews and thinks their room will be great, but then has a bad experience, they're going to stop trusting B…

Where's elsewhere then? AirBnB doesn't count, just in case.

Kayak, Expedia, booking directly with a hotel...
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