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[h1]Orbitz Shows Higher Prices to Mac Users[/h1]
Imagine going for an oil change and finding out that the auto shop charged you a higher price just because you had a luxury car, so they figured you could afford it. You’d probably get ticked off and find another mechanic, right? According to the Wall Street Journal, travel website Orbitz.com has begun engaging in an online version of this, showing more expensive hotel offers to people accessing the site from Macintosh computers — a group of customers that spend as much as 30% more on their hotel rooms, according to the company’s research.
Americans have a troubling tendency to turn over all sorts of personal information to just about any website that dangles a coupon code in front of us. We don’t mind companies harvesting our personal data, then slicing and dicing it in order to sell us stuff. But what about when companies use those seemingly small details to charge us more for the same goods and services? Will this be the moment when it starts to dawn on us that we should probably be less cavalier about what we expose online?
The Journal reports that Orbitz’s experiment is in its early stages. It quotes a company executive who says the site won’t show the exact same room two different customers at different prices, but that’s little consolation. A Mac user searching for a place to stay who gets information about an upgraded room or suite probably believes it’s all that’s available for their travel dates. Meanwhile, a Windows user might conduct the same search and get back results for less expensive standard rooms. Orbitz tells the Journal that Mac customers book the pricier hotel rooms anyway. But shouldn’t it be up to the consumer, not Orbitz, to decide to save a few bucks on a particular trip and slum it in a cheaper room.
Dynamic pricing, to use the industry buzzword, is nothing new. Airlines as well as hotels have adjusted their rates for years based on supply and demand, which is why it’s cheaper to visit Phoenix in August or the Jersey Shore in February. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, although Coca-Cola’s tests in the late 90s of vending machines that charged more when the temperature crept up generated a consumer backlash that prompted the company to abandon the idea.
Read more: http://moneyland.time.com/2012/06/26/orbitz-shows-higher-prices-to-mac-users/#ixzz1z1igMHN1
Imagine going for an oil change and finding out that the auto shop charged you a higher price just because you had a luxury car, so they figured you could afford it. You’d probably get ticked off and find another mechanic, right? According to the Wall Street Journal, travel website Orbitz.com has begun engaging in an online version of this, showing more expensive hotel offers to people accessing the site from Macintosh computers — a group of customers that spend as much as 30% more on their hotel rooms, according to the company’s research.
Americans have a troubling tendency to turn over all sorts of personal information to just about any website that dangles a coupon code in front of us. We don’t mind companies harvesting our personal data, then slicing and dicing it in order to sell us stuff. But what about when companies use those seemingly small details to charge us more for the same goods and services? Will this be the moment when it starts to dawn on us that we should probably be less cavalier about what we expose online?
The Journal reports that Orbitz’s experiment is in its early stages. It quotes a company executive who says the site won’t show the exact same room two different customers at different prices, but that’s little consolation. A Mac user searching for a place to stay who gets information about an upgraded room or suite probably believes it’s all that’s available for their travel dates. Meanwhile, a Windows user might conduct the same search and get back results for less expensive standard rooms. Orbitz tells the Journal that Mac customers book the pricier hotel rooms anyway. But shouldn’t it be up to the consumer, not Orbitz, to decide to save a few bucks on a particular trip and slum it in a cheaper room.
Dynamic pricing, to use the industry buzzword, is nothing new. Airlines as well as hotels have adjusted their rates for years based on supply and demand, which is why it’s cheaper to visit Phoenix in August or the Jersey Shore in February. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, although Coca-Cola’s tests in the late 90s of vending machines that charged more when the temperature crept up generated a consumer backlash that prompted the company to abandon the idea.
Read more: http://moneyland.time.com/2012/06/26/orbitz-shows-higher-prices-to-mac-users/#ixzz1z1igMHN1
