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Bad UX: How Booking.com deceives clients

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Re: Bad UX: How Booking.com deceives clients

#3

I think that I've faced a similar issue with a non-cancelable room. The date was changed into a random one. Not a big loss, but I've stopped using their services since.

I’ve noticed they switch between DD/MM/YYYY and MM/DD/YYYY in the date boxes and so it’ll look right but be there wrong date due to the alternative format

Re: Bad UX: How Booking.com deceives clients

#5
Try searching for a hotel room 6+ months ahead. Oslo end of February 2018.

"14 people are looking right now. In high demand! Booked 124 times in the last 24 hours. Latest Booking: 3 minutes ago"

"In high demand – only 3 rooms left on our site!" "Someone just booked this In high demand!"

"Limited supply in Oslo: 3-star hotels. 4 hotels like Best Western Karl Johan Hotel are already unavailable on our site!"

"3 other people looking now"

While all true it has no connection to how much the hotel might be booked next February.

Re: Bad UX: How Booking.com deceives clients

#6
Booking is the website with the highest density of dark patterns per pixel I've ever seen.

Red texts hurrying you to make a reservation in virtually every on the page ("only 2 rooms left", "someone just made a booking", "12 people looking", "Booked N times today", "You're lucky to see this room, normally it's booked!", "You're lucky to see it for $50, normally it's more expensive" etc.).

All of those texts are flashing/animating so there's a lot of moving things on the page.

When you're idle for a while and switch the tab in the browser, after coming back you get a popup urging you to make a reservation. Basically you're sweaty after the process.

I reserved my hotel lately with Booking and I will actively try to avoid in the future if possible.

Re: Bad UX: How Booking.com deceives clients

#7
post #6

Booking is the website with the highest density of dark patterns per pixel I've ever seen. Red texts hurrying you to make a reservation in virtually every on the page ("only 2 rooms left", "someone just made a booking", "12 people looking", "Booked N times today", "You're lucky to see this room, normally it's booked!", "You're lucky to see it for $50, normally it's more expensive" etc.). All of those texts are flashi…

I've seen this dark pattern at Agoda.com first. They have been doing it for a long time.

Re: Bad UX: How Booking.com deceives clients

#8
Even as a host using booking.com I dislike many shady things they put you through but at the end of the day these dark patterns must work in practice as there is no other platform that delivers even closely as many guests as booking.com.

Re: Bad UX: How Booking.com deceives clients

#9
post #6

Booking is the website with the highest density of dark patterns per pixel I've ever seen. Red texts hurrying you to make a reservation in virtually every on the page ("only 2 rooms left", "someone just made a booking", "12 people looking", "Booked N times today", "You're lucky to see this room, normally it's booked!", "You're lucky to see it for $50, normally it's more expensive" etc.). All of those texts are flashi…

Is there any other company not using these dark patterns? I tried to use many others (big enough to have choices) and it's all the same.

Sometimes you're even wondering if it's not just the same website with another branding.

Re: Bad UX: How Booking.com deceives clients

#10
I gave up online vacation reservations this year. This is the second time I wasted hours on several portals before I've found one that worked in a decent way and had a useful choice. When I've finally found a destination, I tried to book the trips I've found and they all have been "sold out". When I tried the same criteria again, I got the same results but more expensive. Again sold out when I clicked any of them. Did it one more time, same results.

Went to a travel agency in a mall nearby. Got a better price and even some useful hints as where to go to when I'm there.

I'll be back when you have that AI travel agent...

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