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How Booking.com manipulates users

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Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#201

Post by jvannistelrooy »

I travel regularly and Booking.com is my place to go for hotel reservations. It had to "learn" how to use Booking.com in a comfortable way.

For example, I learned to ignore the continuous push for urgency, I sort hotels based on user rating instead of Bookings choice, and I check TripAdvisor for reviews instead of Booking.com itself.

So why would I even use Booking.com? Apart from it having one of the largest offerings, it just love that the whole process of booking, paying, and checking in is so simple and consistent, no matter where in the world I book a hotel or for what purpose (business or leisure). That is what makes me come back to Booking.com, and that's what I wish Booking.com would spend most of their time on.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#202

Post by biztos »

I'm not surprised that they use all manner of "hey! buy this now!" tactics, like many other travel and shopping sites.

I am surprised that people use a single website to choose where they're going to stay. I never book an unknown hotel without checking reviews on a few different sites (usually TripAdvisor, yay pics, and if in the US then Yelp, yay complainers). And I always check prices at least on the hotel's own site so I know what a discount is and what's not.

For me the likes of Booking, Hotels, and Kayak are for map-search and the actual purchase experience. And for the latter I'm pretty happy with Booking, I use them often.

If the message here is that the travel business gets sleazier the higher you climb up the aggregation pyramid, then yes, true, and I can't remember it ever not being thus.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#203

Post by mitul_45 »

Bharath1234 wrote: post #173
mitul_45 wrote: post #122

Well, I am joining Booking.com as frontend engineer this November and this makes me a bit worried. The only reason I chose to join Booking was Amsterdam (I wanted to live/work outside India for a couple of years). I have also heard the tech stack is kind of old and so learning-wise it might be an issue. Any tips on surviving and keeping the learning curve straight from a current/former employee?

Hey! Congrats! I'm just curious about interview process in Booking.com. Are they same as typical data structures and algorithms oriented interviews? Did they let you know about their tech stack?

Yeah, questions were pretty much same you found on the internet. About the tech stack, they do let us know a little but mostly it depends on the team you land on.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#204

Post by codermobile »

phil248 wrote: post #49
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…

I completely agree. I plan my full trip with TripAdvisor. I only had minor problems. Also, those restaurants and hotels do care about their reputation so you get a better service

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#205

Post by kc10 »

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?

Depends on where you are and your skill set. If you are a good engineer (10+ exp.) in Bangalore/Hyderabad and land in a product dev company, you might be looking at INR 40 lakhs (~60k USD). By any standard this is a lot and can lead a fairly luxurious life. Few of my friends are getting paid this kind of salary.

But even if you have good skill set, but don't want too much pressure and would like a fairly stable at some Indian consulting company, you might only be drawing around 30k USD. But you get to earn if you are sent for an onsite assignment.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#206

Post by jmlucjav »

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…

They contacted me to see if I was interested in interviewing some months ago. I rejected cause I didn't intend to move to Amsterdam, and I asked why they were contacting me as I had no Perl experience at all. He said they have more and more java/python lately.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#207

Post by blahbap »

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…

> Part of being a grownup is doing whatever the hell you want

No, that's being a child. Being a grown up means not only thinking about yourself

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#208

Post by sAbakumoff »

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…

I live in Amsterdam do not work for booking but constantly discuss them in IT circles. Recently I heard of a guy who spend 0.5 year working on the calendar control that you can see on the main page. Every fucking day he tried to adjust the control to optimise the booking rate. That must be very boring job. Another ex-booker, back-end developer told that he has the PTSD after working with their Perl code base - it was a joke of course but I am pretty sure that it contained traces of truth. However, booking offers great benefits - the amazing office in the centre of Amsterdam - there are multiple of them - but I am referring to the one on Rembrandt square - very good salary, especially if you are a high skilled migrant and have 30% rule, subsiudized meals.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#209

Post by elorant »

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…

Life is easier when you treat people with respect.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#210

Post by user5994461 »

davedx wrote: post #147
stingraycharles wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true. It might make it a bit better knowing that they’re hiring a few of the top Perl people in the world (Yves, Rafael, Ævar), but indeed, everything is Perl. They’re managing to hire quite a lot of people, by the way, but the compensation is a lot higher than what’s normal in NL. With regards to their testing procedures, the way I understand it is that they’re focusing on mitigation using clever monitoring/…

Yeah, they're all about A/B testing, not automated testing. The article shows what you get when you laser focus on CRO. They do very well though, and are probably the top hotel booking site? Definitely a lesson in there somewhere.

They are roughly equals with hotels.com, that is also very strong on AB testing.
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