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“If you want, run an experiment this evening. Instead of using your MacBook, use a PC, you will get a cheaper price. Leave your house, go to a different ho

“If you want, run an experiment this evening. Instead of using your MacBook, use a PC, you will get a cheaper price. Leave your house, go to a different house, book the same holiday or buy the same product, you will get a cheaper price." Um... no? The Mac/PC pricing thing was one travel site, and to my knowledge, this practice is limited to travel booking sites. Amazon prices may often be algorithmically adjusted, but not per-user. There is an entire industry of price trackers and deal blogs that would not exist if online retail used travel-booking-style real-time price discrimination adjustment.

zeteo 9y ago
> The Mac/PC pricing thing was one travel site, and to my knowledge, this practice is limited to travel booking sites. Amazon prices may often be algorithmically adjusted, but not per-user. Yeah why worry about it if it's only happening on travel booking sites? I mean, these practices would never be taken up by big companies with lots of data to really tailor prices per-user.
- cavanasm 9y ago
  There's too much same product price comparison available for online retail to do such things without being noticed. It's not that they couldn't do it and have some level of results, it's that people would quickly become aware of it.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - problems 9y ago
    Exactly, noticing things like this is just too easy - Friends and I frequently discuss it when comparing prices, usually it turns out to be that one of us found a product from a vendor via the search and one found it via a sale page. You'll get caught all the time if you're doing this.
- DINKDINK 9y ago
  The Mac/PC pricing phenomenon is being misrepresented. The price of a specific hotel was completely independent of the OS you booked from. What was dependent on what OS you booked at was the price percentile of the market that was shown to you as a default. If you were a PC customer and thought "Hmm why are all these low rent places being shown to me" and filtered to the 'high rent' places you'd be able to see the same market as a Mac customer who thought "Hmm why are all these high rent places being shown to me" and filtered to the 'low rent' places. Is there a anti-trust issue? no-> there isn't an issue with competition, the author is just angry someone isn't giving a good or service to them for free.
lazyjones 9y ago
> There is an entire industry of price trackers and deal blogs that would not exist if online retail used travel-booking-style real-time price discrimination adjustment. That's correct, although some online retailers show different prices depending on whether you visit them directly or via a price comparison site.
dmritard96 9y ago
previously built out a large price tracking system across numerous online marketplaces and retailers. Things that impacted pricing: Time of Day, Time of Week, Year etc. Previous Shopping IP address/Geographical Location User Agent String (includes most info regarding device type, brand, model, browser etc) and more...
paulsutter 9y ago
I get very different hotel prices using my cellphone, my desktop, my desktop with chrome incognito vs safari, kayak vs skyscanner, etc, for the same search at the same time.
- lotsofpulp 9y ago
  Hilton/Marriott/IHG/Choice hotels do not offer different prices to different customers. They all might change prices, either algorithmically or manually, but those prices go out to everyone. However, pricing from a travel agent (such as a different non official website) might be different, but that's because travel agents want to make money as the middlemen. However, you should always be able to find the lowest price publicly available (i.e. not privately negotiated) on the actual hotel's website.
  - _rpd 9y ago
    I have to say that this completely contradicts my experience. The room price listed on the hotel's official website is always close to the highest price on the internet. Discounting via other sites is so common that I now plan on it. I can often find half price rooms with modest effort.
    - lotsofpulp 9y ago
      I am in the hotel business, so unless there's a technical glitch, that's not supposed to be happening for the big chains. If it does, then you can even get free nights: http://hiltonworldwide3.hilton.com/en/best-price-guarantee/overview.html http://hiltonworldwide3.hilton.com/en/best-price-guarantee/o... http://www.marriott.com/online-hotel-booking.mi http://www.marriott.com/online-hotel-booking.mi https://www.ihg.com/hotels/us/en/customer-care/best-price-guarantee https://www.ihg.com/hotels/us/en/customer-care/best-price-gu... https://www.choicehotels.com/deals/best-rate https://www.choicehotels.com/deals/best-rate Why would a hotel want to pay 15% commission to Expedia or Priceline? Compare prices on kayak.com with roomkey.com and you will see that all the chain hotels are lower on roomkey.com (which is the website owned by the hotel brands themselves, hence no commission, and lower rewards member pricing).

zeteo 9y ago

> The Mac/PC pricing thing was one travel site, and to my knowledge, this practice is limited to travel booking sites. Amazon prices may often be algorithmically adjusted, but not per-user. Yeah why worry about it if it's only happening on travel booking sites? I mean, these practices would never be taken up by big companies with lots of data to really tailor prices per-user.

cavanasm 9y ago
There's too much same product price comparison available for online retail to do such things without being noticed. It's not that they couldn't do it and have some level of results, it's that people would quickly become aware of it.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- problems 9y ago
  Exactly, noticing things like this is just too easy - Friends and I frequently discuss it when comparing prices, usually it turns out to be that one of us found a product from a vendor via the search and one found it via a sale page. You'll get caught all the time if you're doing this.
DINKDINK 9y ago
The Mac/PC pricing phenomenon is being misrepresented. The price of a specific hotel was completely independent of the OS you booked from. What was dependent on what OS you booked at was the price percentile of the market that was shown to you as a default. If you were a PC customer and thought "Hmm why are all these low rent places being shown to me" and filtered to the 'high rent' places you'd be able to see the same market as a Mac customer who thought "Hmm why are all these high rent places being shown to me" and filtered to the 'low rent' places. Is there a anti-trust issue? no-> there isn't an issue with competition, the author is just angry someone isn't giving a good or service to them for free.

lazyjones 9y ago

> There is an entire industry of price trackers and deal blogs that would not exist if online retail used travel-booking-style real-time price discrimination adjustment. That's correct, although some online retailers show different prices depending on whether you visit them directly or via a price comparison site.

dmritard96 9y ago

previously built out a large price tracking system across numerous online marketplaces and retailers. Things that impacted pricing: Time of Day, Time of Week, Year etc. Previous Shopping IP address/Geographical Location User Agent String (includes most info regarding device type, brand, model, browser etc) and more...

paulsutter 9y ago

I get very different hotel prices using my cellphone, my desktop, my desktop with chrome incognito vs safari, kayak vs skyscanner, etc, for the same search at the same time.

lotsofpulp 9y ago
Hilton/Marriott/IHG/Choice hotels do not offer different prices to different customers. They all might change prices, either algorithmically or manually, but those prices go out to everyone. However, pricing from a travel agent (such as a different non official website) might be different, but that's because travel agents want to make money as the middlemen. However, you should always be able to find the lowest price publicly available (i.e. not privately negotiated) on the actual hotel's website.
- _rpd 9y ago
  I have to say that this completely contradicts my experience. The room price listed on the hotel's official website is always close to the highest price on the internet. Discounting via other sites is so common that I now plan on it. I can often find half price rooms with modest effort.
  - lotsofpulp 9y ago
    I am in the hotel business, so unless there's a technical glitch, that's not supposed to be happening for the big chains. If it does, then you can even get free nights: http://hiltonworldwide3.hilton.com/en/best-price-guarantee/overview.html http://hiltonworldwide3.hilton.com/en/best-price-guarantee/o... http://www.marriott.com/online-hotel-booking.mi http://www.marriott.com/online-hotel-booking.mi https://www.ihg.com/hotels/us/en/customer-care/best-price-guarantee https://www.ihg.com/hotels/us/en/customer-care/best-price-gu... https://www.choicehotels.com/deals/best-rate https://www.choicehotels.com/deals/best-rate Why would a hotel want to pay 15% commission to Expedia or Priceline? Compare prices on kayak.com with roomkey.com and you will see that all the chain hotels are lower on roomkey.com (which is the website owned by the hotel brands themselves, hence no commission, and lower rewards member pricing).