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How Booking.com manipulates users

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Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#71

Post by metaobject »

eh78ssxv2f wrote: post #61
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…

> Just ask TicketMaster. TM has been doing pretty well in terms of stock price (not the user happiness) -- probably the metric that they care about. So, I am not sure if that's the best example. Source: https://finance.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chd...

Don't they practically have a monopoly on ticket sales, though?

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#72

Post by charliesome »

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…

> Dark patterns may help profits in the short-term, but they're terrible for your brand. Just ask TicketMaster.

TicketMaster's customers are people selling tickets, not those buying them.

Their entire business model is based around burning their own reputation, not the reputation of whoever's selling through TicketMaster. That's why they can get away with using dark patterns to make more money for their customers and themselves - consumers don't have a choice.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#73

Post by bogomipz »

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #28

This and the recent Ticketmaster expose make me wonder: is it possible to objectively identify dark UI patterns like this via a browser extension? Usually I can try to see through them, but something that flags stuff like this with a non-obtrusive warning would be nice to add to the list of extensions I automatically throw on new installs for family members (that list currently includes PrivacyBadger and uBlock Origi…

What was the Ticketmaster expose?

Not that I would be the least surprised by any kind of scandal from those thugs but I haven't heard anything recently.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#74

Post by vijayr »

zodPod wrote: post #17
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.

Udemy is also huge for having a "One time $10/$15 coupon!" that "expires in 3 days" and will immediately be replaced by another one. All you really have to do is google "Udemy coupon" to get any class on the site for $10 or $15 depending on what the current coupon is. This also works for the craft store chain Michael's but to a lesser extent. They almost ALWAYS have a 40-50% off coupon in their weekly ad. So if you f…

Not saying this is a nice thing to do, but they do it because it works, no? Didn't someone (JC Penny?) try getting rid of this constant "on sale/coupon" crap but that had a negative effect on their business?

If something is constantly "70% off" (especially non digital goods and services), shouldn't consumers stop for a second and think how this makes sense?

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#75

Post by bogomipz »

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.

You mean like this from last month where they listed the same hotel in New York City as both a 3 star and a 4 star:

https://www-moneysavingexpert-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/www.m...

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#76

Post by bogomipz »

zpr wrote: post #30
mwfj wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A suggestion for people who are upset with this behavior: Use Booking.com (and Google, Expedia, etc) as a showroom, after you have found a certain hotel, find their web site or phone and arrange a booking directly.

Sometimes the direct prices are actually more. Your best bet for sticking it to them might be to use an alternative booking service.

And who is that in Europe? I tried both Agoda and Hotels.com without much success.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#77

Post by abruzzi »

aianus wrote: post #55
sturgill wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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…

> 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 booking.) From those two or three, I sort them by price, and work from the cheapest to the most expensive until I find the cheapest that I think will provide what I want, and book using that hotels site. Occasionally it is booking.com, but more often than not, it is the Motel 6 corporate site or the Comfort Inn corporate site or similar.

I also never look at reviews since my experience has found that reviews are useless to me. I think reviewers tend to care about things I don't, and have had excellent experiences at places with generally bad reviews.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#78

Post by bogomipz »

dawnerd wrote: post #44

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.

Agreed. A couple of months ago as an experiment, when I was quoted 100 Euros a night from booking.com for a modest hotel in a small town in Austria that I had stayed at previously for much less. I didn't make the booking through booking.com but walked over to the hotel when I get to town for an the spot booking and got the same room with breakfast included or 75 Euros a night.

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#79

Post by bogomipz »

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…

On Amazon I usually just make sure they are a verified purchaser of the product before considering a review. Does Fakepost offer something beyond that for Amazon?

Yelp I understand though as I don't think there is anything like a "verified diner."

Re: How Booking.com manipulates users

#80

Post by zavulon »

hervature wrote: post #66
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 people not Google for alternatives? I can think of at least 5 competitors to Ticket Master. There's even one that only charges 5% seller fee and no buyer fee.

For most events (at least in the US), you can only get tickets via TicketMaster. Venues sign an agreement with TM that forbids them selling tickets elsewhere. TM controls venue's entire ticket sale workflow, including inventory, printing and sending tickets, etc.

Going with another vendor is a gigantic undertaking, you would need to overhaul most of your processes. Most venues don't have the resources/bandwidth to pull that off.

And that's how TM stays a monopoly.

Source: used to work for a large venue.

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