Are 14 people really looking at that product? (2020) • Hacker News Board

Re: Are 14 people really looking at that product? (2020)

#101

Post by LudwigNagasena » Tue, Dec 07, 2021, 12:43 PM UTC

shp0ngle wrote: post #84

dessant wrote: post #28

The first time we booked a place on Booking.com, we were anxious the entire afternoon. Not sure if things have changed, but at that time they made it feel like a racing game, flashy countdowns, everything but THAT place sold out in the area, OTHER PEOPLE WERE LOOKING AT IT, several email notifications in the span of hours because we haven't decided yet, and now it might be TOO LATE if we refresh the page. I wouldn't…

I will give you a tip. * search hotel at booking.com * find that hotel at google * call them directly, by actual phone You will get a lower price always. Of course, you need to actually manually call them, which people don't want to do; but it always worked for me.

* Search a hotel at booking.com

* Find them at Google

* Call them directly

* Get a super expensive price and a tip to book online

Re: Are 14 people really looking at that product? (2020)

#102

Post by breakfastduck » Tue, Dec 07, 2021, 1:02 PM UTC

tester34 wrote: post #45

GuB-42 wrote: post #26

It is like all those ".io" games (ex: https://agar.io/ ). You are supposed to play online against other players, but many of these games put you against bots instead. This is evident when you lose internet and the game still runs. The original idea was to first populate the game with bots and progressively replace them with real players as the game become more popular, then developers realized that if they could get…

If you're having fun, then what's wrong with that? It's pretty hard to start game which's fun is based on PvP, yet you have no players so bots are the way to go I guess

Not being honest about it is the frustrating part.

Re: Are 14 people really looking at that product? (2020)

#103

Post by _448 » Tue, Dec 07, 2021, 1:03 PM UTC

Whenever I see things like "x people viewing this product", "only x items left", "buy 1 get x free/discount", "limited time offer" etc it raises a massive red flag for me not just about the product but also about the company. But unfortunately good companies with good products also sometime get sucked into this marketing ploys.

Re: Are 14 people really looking at that product? (2020)

#104

Post by breakfastduck » Tue, Dec 07, 2021, 1:03 PM UTC

Sightline wrote: post #11

xwolfi wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On top of validation and urgency that are negative, you have also a true sense of popularity that indicates that the product works, has good reputation, fits a common purpose or is priced correctly. Crowd selection isn't negative, in fact without it we d just be picking fruit at random in the forest with a good chance of dying of poisonning, instead of chatting online... on a popular forum we think like minded people…

Crowd selection lead to Hitler, Jan 6th, COVID denial, Jonestown, etc.. Just because everyone believes the world is flat doesn't make it so.

"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people Jez." - Super Hans.

Re: Are 14 people really looking at that product? (2020)

#105

Post by ratww » Tue, Dec 07, 2021, 1:05 PM UTC

trymas wrote: post #85

ratww wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Booking.com is a terrible company in pretty much every regard. I've had a reservation to a hotel that was pretty full according to the website scare tactics, but when I got there I was the only person to come in weeks. Also, their support is abysmal. Often when hotels fail to provide rooms as advertised, they play a "not my fault" game with the hotels, where the hotels claim they can't refund because the money is stu…

> Then they give you a "20% refund" that you can use on your next purchase there. Consider yourself lucky. For me it was 20eur take it or leave it, on 500eur loss. I consider cancellation/refund policies that end before your arrival technically - a scam. The situation was like that - the apartment was booked with cancellation available 3 (or smth) days before arrival [0]. Upon arrival - the place was cigarette reekin…

Oh, I wonder if we went to the same place. Exact same experience.

The funny part is that you can cancel before arriving, but if you're set to stay multiple days, you can't cancel the other days. Might as well make N reservations instead of 1 with N days.

About reviews: Booking.com didn't allow me to leave a review, since they claimed I could only spend one day at the hotel. Even though they charged me for a week. They are as crooked as it gets.

Re: Are 14 people really looking at that product? (2020)

#106

Post by jaclaz » Tue, Dec 07, 2021, 1:07 PM UTC

shp0ngle wrote: post #84

dessant wrote: post #28

The first time we booked a place on Booking.com, we were anxious the entire afternoon. Not sure if things have changed, but at that time they made it feel like a racing game, flashy countdowns, everything but THAT place sold out in the area, OTHER PEOPLE WERE LOOKING AT IT, several email notifications in the span of hours because we haven't decided yet, and now it might be TOO LATE if we refresh the page. I wouldn't…

I will give you a tip. * search hotel at booking.com * find that hotel at google * call them directly, by actual phone You will get a lower price always. Of course, you need to actually manually call them, which people don't want to do; but it always worked for me.

I would add something (disclaimer I am involved in the management of a small hotel, this comes from my experience):

1) you will talk to a human

2) you will be able to talk about particular requests (like - say - higher or lower floor, an additional bed for your child, room with balcony, non standard breakfast, etc.)

3) the dates/times of your arrival and departure will be double checked interactively with the hotel clerk [0]

4) the rate will be double checked and confirmed [1] (besides very likely being lower, particularly if you are going to stay mmore than one or two days)

[0] it is not extremely rare that people make mistakes with the dates, when/if you arrive one day earlier it is usually not a problem (unless the hotel has no vacancies) but if you arrive one day later, that is a "no show", your money cannot be recovered

[1] it happens often enough that people books a double room ( but for one person) by mistake and then is surprised that the hotel asks for a supplement for the second person

Re: Are 14 people really looking at that product? (2020)

#107

Post by ratww » Tue, Dec 07, 2021, 1:07 PM UTC

robertlagrant wrote: post #96

virgilp wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an opposing pov: we mostly use booking.com for our reservations, and have never had an issue with them, and found their support useful the one or two times we needed it. They're the best reservation site that I know (others are way worse), and are fairly customer friendly [+]. I still book directly whenever I can because I don't want the hosts to pay the rather large booking.com fees... but we often find places to…

> 5 of them are already typing in the credit card details? Haha exactly. Two of them have already hit enter! Our service mesh is delaying calling the Stripe API as long as possible in case you want to buy instead!

"Ok they already ordered, but if you buy now we're gonna cancel their order because we like you better!"

Re: Are 14 people really looking at that product? (2020)

#108

Post by koonsolo » Tue, Dec 07, 2021, 1:09 PM UTC

I develop a website where you can make and share games. The games each have a counter with the number of plays.

I can easily manipulate that number to inflate how many people have played those games, but I'm glad I never did. For one, the comments below that game wouldn't reflect the numbers.

I think people are smarter than you think, and can easily spot inconsistencies of numbers being too big, relative to the engagement on a platform.

Re: Are 14 people really looking at that product? (2020)

#109

Post by ratww » Tue, Dec 07, 2021, 1:12 PM UTC

Aeolun wrote: post #62

woutr_be wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, their support is abysmal. Often when hotels fail to provide rooms as advertised, they play a "not my fault" game with the hotels, where the hotels claim they can't refund because the money is stuck with Booking.com while Booking.com claim the money is in the hotels account. Then they give you a "20% refund" that you can use on your next purchase there. I'm going through the exact same dispute with VRBO (Exped…

Small claims court?

For me, in the end I disputed the charge with my credit card and they sided with me when I send pictures of the hotel. The single collective bathroom (yes) had no locks on the door (yes).

Re: Are 14 people really looking at that product? (2020)

#110

Post by lelandfe » Tue, Dec 07, 2021, 1:12 PM UTC

throwawayffffas wrote: post #99

resonious wrote: post #75

I was once tasked with upgrading a small desktop application used by warehouse workers to fetch imprint data for an apparel printer. The data was stored in a really inefficient way and so the operation took a stupidly long time. I decided to add a progress bar so that people don't think the app is busted (which they occasionally did). Turned out, much of the time spent was on the server's end, so I couldn't track the…

I think that virtually describes almost all progress bars. A better solution is a spinning wheel, because you don't need to figure out how long it would take. You just have to make sure the spinning wheel ocassionally stops and starts again to give users a sense that it's connected to something.

Indeterminate loading indicators are only appropriate for short load times. Anything longer and you definitely want to have something to inform the user of a timeline. Even if it’s a bit of a fib.