How Booking.com manipulates users • Hacker News Board

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#211

Post by tempestn » Thu, Sep 21, 2017, 8:50 AM UTC

blahbap wrote: post #207

dvt wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

My thoughts exactly. Unfortunately these days it's clear not everyone feels that way.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#212

Post by KozmoNau7 » Thu, Sep 21, 2017, 8:52 AM UTC

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.

I've used Expedia a bunch of times, and I've never been burned.

Though I do only use it for flight tickets, not for hotels. And I always go there in an incognito tab, to make sure I avoid any cookies etc.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#213

Post by Keloran » Thu, Sep 21, 2017, 8:54 AM UTC

these rules apply to all PriceLine sites, its not just booking, but because booking either applied them first (and booking is one of the most profitable priceline companies) or they made the most money off them, all the others follow suit and add them to theirs

I used to work for RentalCars and as soon as booking put the "someone just booked" on the site, RentalCars had to follow suit even if the last car booked was 3 days ago

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#214

Post by zmb_ » Thu, Sep 21, 2017, 8:54 AM UTC

WA wrote: post #146

Oh it's not only booking.com The newest scam is: flight comparison websites show you a low price, but only if you pay with a VISA. Switch to MasterCard and it's an additional 20-30€. But then you invested in the whole booking process already. Amazon Prime: Try to cancel it. They make it sound as if you lose Prime right away. There's an option "remind me 3 days before next payment" that suggests you should think more…

I booked with AMOMA (another hotel site) and now they email me a "10% off" voucher every week. The only thing is that to claim it I need to follow a link in the email. When I follow the link, the prices of all the rooms increase, and the room price I already had open in another tab suddenly becomes "unavailable". I've also clicked the link to remove me from their mailing list half a dozen times, but they never remove me.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#215

Post by bdemirkir » Thu, Sep 21, 2017, 8:54 AM UTC

aembleton wrote: post #24

I just block a lot of this booking.com noise with uBlock. These are my filters so far: www.booking.com##.sr_rooms_left_wrap.only_x_left www.booking.com##.sr-booked-x-times.clearfix.lbsr www.booking.com##.soldout_property

Here's a little bit more:

  www.booking.com##.soldout_property
  www.booking.com##.sr_rooms_left_wrap.only_x_left
  www.booking.com##.lastbooking
  www.booking.com##.sr--x-times-booked
  www.booking.com##.in-high-demand-not-scarce
  www.booking.com##.top_scarcity
  www.booking.com##.hp-rt-just-booked
  www.booking.com##.cheapest_banner_content > *
  www.booking.com##.hp-social_proof
  www.booking.com##.fe_banner__red.fe_banner__w-icon.fe_banner__scale_small.fe_banner
  www.booking.com##.urgency_message_x_people.urgency_message_red
  www.booking.com##.rackrate
  www.booking.com##.urgency_message_red.altHotels_most_recent_booking
  www.booking.com##.fe_banner__w-icon-large.fe_banner__w-icon.fe_banner
  www.booking.com##.smaller-low-av-msg_wrapper
  www.booking.com##.small_warning.wxp-sr-banner.js-wxp-sr-banner

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#216

Post by isolli » Thu, Sep 21, 2017, 8:58 AM UTC

Keloran wrote: post #213

these rules apply to all PriceLine sites, its not just booking, but because booking either applied them first (and booking is one of the most profitable priceline companies) or they made the most money off them, all the others follow suit and add them to theirs I used to work for RentalCars and as soon as booking put the "someone just booked" on the site, RentalCars had to follow suit even if the last car booked was…

I knew it, thanks for confirming. I use RentalCars a lot and I'm happy with the service, but the "someone just booked" just felt fake. The weird part is that, even though I was convinced it was fake, it still had an impact on me.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#217

Post by ckastner » Thu, Sep 21, 2017, 9:02 AM UTC

I look at a number of sites when researching hotels, but the final straw for me was when the prices on Booking.com's page were actually higher than the prices offered by the hotels directly.

I repeatedly verified this on numerous dates, with numerous hotels -- Booking.com's super-exceptional "deals" were occasionally up to 20% more expensive than a direct booking with the hotel, for the exact same room type.

Has anybody else seen this?

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#218

Post by FearNotDaniel » Thu, Sep 21, 2017, 9:03 AM UTC

Guy books the cheapest hotel he can find, smack in the middle of the "vibrant gay village". Unsuprisingly, it's noisy and he doesn't get any sleep. Blames the UX of the booking website, because somehow the website forced him into trying to sleep in the middle of a permanent Mardi Gras. Suck it up, snowflake.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#219

Post by macspoofing » Thu, Sep 21, 2017, 9:03 AM UTC

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.

Wait till you're a grownup and you realize how not true that is.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#220

Post by siddharthdeswal » Thu, Sep 21, 2017, 9:03 AM UTC

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.

I'd contend they're a top booking site because of the wide variety of hotels available, not because of the CRO. I'd look for the team that goes and signs hotels up to the platform, they seem to be doing a really good job in all territories.