4 ms·

It's not just the front end though. I used booking.com to book a hotel room with my wife and daughter, and it had a label on the booking option saying "your chi

It's not just the front end though. I used booking.com to book a hotel room with my wife and daughter, and it had a label on the booking option saying "your child's stay is free!" or similar. Turns out that her staying might be free, but the bed for her to sleep in is £30 per night, which was an extra I had to pay when we arrived. Booking.com is fine for finding somewhere because so many places are on it, but in the future I'll always book directly with the location through their website.

trollied 4y ago
That’s so messed up. I’d probably report their dark pattern crap to the advertising standards agency. They don’t like that sort of thing.
bartvk 4y ago
> in the future I'll always book directly with the location through their website I've tried this with a hotel in Italy, and found out that the price was actually higher. I couldn't believe it. I actually asked the reception whether they were really sure. Yes, this is our price, they said.
- Bellamy 4y ago
  That's because the terms of use of bookings.com insist that you can't offer a price lower than on booking.com. I don't even if this is legal in your country, but in Germany they ruled against it: https://www.thelocal.de/20210518/germany-upholds-ban-on-booking-com-best-price-clauses https://www.thelocal.de/20210518/germany-upholds-ban-on-book...
  - toyg 4y ago
    Beyond the TOS nobody reads (not even sellers), this sort of difference might be due to a number of factors. It could well be that they provide rooms discounted to Booking.com because they want to fill a certain amount no matter what, and then do price-anchoring for other rooms on their website. This is more or less like them giving rooms massively discounted to package sellers (Thomas Cook etc).
  - carlosjobim 4y ago
    100% wrong. You can't advertise a lower price - for obvious reasons, but you can of course give a lower price to people who call, email or walk in. Many hotels are idiotic about this and will put a cheaper price on booking, then wonder why booking is taking all their reservations. Unexplainable...
- badpun 4y ago
  It's common with many online businesses. On large online aggregators (booking.com, amazon, steam etc.), they have to post a low price to be competetive in a sea of other available option. Whereas, on their own website, they can charge whatever they want, and hope to get a price-insensitive sucker who didn't check on amazon first.
- frereubu 4y ago
  You can often get them to drop the cost if you say "if you're not going to match them I'll just book it on booking.com" because they'll get less income. That rather depends on the person you're talking to caring about the hotel's income though, so the larger they are the less likely it is.
- systemtest 4y ago
  I'm very much ashamed of this, but when the receptionist couldn't match the Booking.com price I made a reservation through Booking.com while I was in the lobby. Two minutes later the booking came through in their system and I got the keys to the room.
  - whizzter 4y ago
    I don't see it as something to be ashamed of as a customer. Some manager made a nutty pricing descision and now they have to live with stupid behaviour.
  - leephillips 4y ago
    Why ashamed? I don’t see anything wrong with this.
  - mlry 4y ago
    I sure hope you used the hotel's wifi in the lobby to do so! ;)
tuukkah 4y ago
Did you ask Booking.com to solve the discrepancy? After all, the extra charge may have been something the hotel came up with.
- frereubu 4y ago
  The charge was buried deep in the small print on Booking.com so technically they'd advised me about the charge. I challenged it, but it was a live chat with someone who clearly had no power to change anything. I decided I'd rather just suck up the charge and treat it as a learning experience rather than spend any more time on it.
  - tuukkah 4y ago
    From their customer FAQ: > "Typically, additional costs for children (including extra beds/cots) are not included in the price. Please contact the property directly 1-2 days before your stay to find out more." https://www.booking.com/tpi_faq.html https://www.booking.com/tpi_faq.html After this, what's the point of using Booking.com?

trollied 4y ago

That’s so messed up. I’d probably report their dark pattern crap to the advertising standards agency. They don’t like that sort of thing.

bartvk 4y ago

> in the future I'll always book directly with the location through their website I've tried this with a hotel in Italy, and found out that the price was actually higher. I couldn't believe it. I actually asked the reception whether they were really sure. Yes, this is our price, they said.

Bellamy 4y ago
That's because the terms of use of bookings.com insist that you can't offer a price lower than on booking.com. I don't even if this is legal in your country, but in Germany they ruled against it: https://www.thelocal.de/20210518/germany-upholds-ban-on-booking-com-best-price-clauses https://www.thelocal.de/20210518/germany-upholds-ban-on-book...
- toyg 4y ago
  Beyond the TOS nobody reads (not even sellers), this sort of difference might be due to a number of factors. It could well be that they provide rooms discounted to Booking.com because they want to fill a certain amount no matter what, and then do price-anchoring for other rooms on their website. This is more or less like them giving rooms massively discounted to package sellers (Thomas Cook etc).
- carlosjobim 4y ago
  100% wrong. You can't advertise a lower price - for obvious reasons, but you can of course give a lower price to people who call, email or walk in. Many hotels are idiotic about this and will put a cheaper price on booking, then wonder why booking is taking all their reservations. Unexplainable...
badpun 4y ago
It's common with many online businesses. On large online aggregators (booking.com, amazon, steam etc.), they have to post a low price to be competetive in a sea of other available option. Whereas, on their own website, they can charge whatever they want, and hope to get a price-insensitive sucker who didn't check on amazon first.
frereubu 4y ago
You can often get them to drop the cost if you say "if you're not going to match them I'll just book it on booking.com" because they'll get less income. That rather depends on the person you're talking to caring about the hotel's income though, so the larger they are the less likely it is.
systemtest 4y ago
I'm very much ashamed of this, but when the receptionist couldn't match the Booking.com price I made a reservation through Booking.com while I was in the lobby. Two minutes later the booking came through in their system and I got the keys to the room.
- whizzter 4y ago
  I don't see it as something to be ashamed of as a customer. Some manager made a nutty pricing descision and now they have to live with stupid behaviour.
- leephillips 4y ago
  Why ashamed? I don’t see anything wrong with this.
- mlry 4y ago
  I sure hope you used the hotel's wifi in the lobby to do so! ;)

tuukkah 4y ago

Did you ask Booking.com to solve the discrepancy? After all, the extra charge may have been something the hotel came up with.

frereubu 4y ago
The charge was buried deep in the small print on Booking.com so technically they'd advised me about the charge. I challenged it, but it was a live chat with someone who clearly had no power to change anything. I decided I'd rather just suck up the charge and treat it as a learning experience rather than spend any more time on it.
- tuukkah 4y ago
  From their customer FAQ: > "Typically, additional costs for children (including extra beds/cots) are not included in the price. Please contact the property directly 1-2 days before your stay to find out more." https://www.booking.com/tpi_faq.html https://www.booking.com/tpi_faq.html After this, what's the point of using Booking.com?