Bad UX: How Booking.com deceives clients(medium.com)
medium.com
Bad UX: How Booking.com deceives clients
https://medium.com/@ilyadoroshin/bad-ux-how-booking-com-deceives-clients-5dc9e9485f32
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What is even worse on these sites is that if you switch too much between room types to check prices the original price goes up. In order to get the price you first got you need to delete your cookies and start over.
I don't know how that is even legal.
I don't know how that is even legal.
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.
Sometimes you're even wondering if it's not just the same website with another branding.
Booking.com is the white label hotel provider for many websites. Kayak, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, etc.
Per excellent report by Ben Edelman, which I strongly recommend reading for anyone interested in the booking platforms http://www.benedelman.org/publications/ota-bias-12jul2017.pd...
Priceline Group: priceline.com, agoda.com, booking.com, cheapflights.com, ctrip.com, KAYAK, Momondo.com, Opentable.com, rentalcars.com, Rocketmiles
Expedia, Inc.: Expedia.com, Carrentals.com, Classic Vacations, eLong.com, HomeAway, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Orbitz Worldwide, Travelocity, Traveldoo, Trivago, Venere, Wotif Group
Priceline Group: priceline.com, agoda.com, booking.com, cheapflights.com, ctrip.com, KAYAK, Momondo.com, Opentable.com, rentalcars.com, Rocketmiles
Expedia, Inc.: Expedia.com, Carrentals.com, Classic Vacations, eLong.com, HomeAway, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Orbitz Worldwide, Travelocity, Traveldoo, Trivago, Venere, Wotif Group
I wonder where switchfly factors in to all that, it was my impression they did white label stuff for a number of the above -- apparently not?
Does that mean that the different sites within each group have the same listings and deals as the other sites in the same group?
For Hotel bookings, many (all?) Expedia subsidiaries seems to be just a different UI for the same offer with slightly different prices since they target different users (premium vs budget etc). All bookings are made under the name Expedia.
In case of Priceline Group, it depends on the market. E.g. in China Agoda seems to be just another front-end for booking.com. All bookings are actually made through booking.com. But e.g. in Malaysia Agoda lists some Hotels which I could not find on Booking.com.
The Flight search engines seem to have major differences, e.g. in Southeast Asia Momondo lists a lot more local agents and more airline websites directly than Kayak.
In case of Priceline Group, it depends on the market. E.g. in China Agoda seems to be just another front-end for booking.com. All bookings are actually made through booking.com. But e.g. in Malaysia Agoda lists some Hotels which I could not find on Booking.com.
The Flight search engines seem to have major differences, e.g. in Southeast Asia Momondo lists a lot more local agents and more airline websites directly than Kayak.
Neither Ctrip nor eLong are owned by Priceline / Expedia. They invested in the respective companies and own a stake, but Chinese law prevents that any foreign company owns the majority of any Chinese company.
(Yes, even the Chinese McD, Apple, Starbucks etc are majority Chinese owned)
I am a bit shocked though, that Momondo is owned by Kayak. For me, Momondo has so far been the best alternative. And Skyscanner is owned by Ctrip, which has a strategic partnership with the priceline group...
I am a bit shocked though, that Momondo is owned by Kayak. For me, Momondo has so far been the best alternative. And Skyscanner is owned by Ctrip, which has a strategic partnership with the priceline group...
Then I doubt Apple China makes much profit - almost all profit will be booked to a company wholly owned by Apple US.
I just go to the hotel website directly.
Booking.com sometimes has more info (e.g. hotel website doesn't mention arrival times but booking.com does), in which case I use it for information purposes only and cringe at the dark patterns every time.
Booking.com sometimes has more info (e.g. hotel website doesn't mention arrival times but booking.com does), in which case I use it for information purposes only and cringe at the dark patterns every time.
That's what we're hoping to solve. The state of affairs with online booking is disgusting and the customer is too far removed from the process, while hotels are being strong-armed into price fixing.
Good luck.
Thank you. Interestingly, my post, which was completely neutral in tone, has negative votes. Certainly makes you wonder if our competition, Expedia and Priceline, maintain a presence on HN.
On a marginally related note, what made you decide to create an account just to engage in discussion in this thread?
On a marginally related note, what made you decide to create an account just to engage in discussion in this thread?
Their price match thing is a textbook farce.
Their support is so pathetic that they made me regret couple of bookings I made. Days, weeks - no response. You send follow up emails, no response. You escalate no response. Radio silence.
The GPS locations of properties are so deceiving that you have to check every single hotel on Google Maps and it was during on of these map searches that I realised they had been ripping me off all these months.
Immediately uninstalled the app and I started searching for hotels on Google Maps and TripAdvisor.
Their support is so pathetic that they made me regret couple of bookings I made. Days, weeks - no response. You send follow up emails, no response. You escalate no response. Radio silence.
The GPS locations of properties are so deceiving that you have to check every single hotel on Google Maps and it was during on of these map searches that I realised they had been ripping me off all these months.
Immediately uninstalled the app and I started searching for hotels on Google Maps and TripAdvisor.
Pro-tip: I filtered all of those out with an adblocker.
I'll take all the dark patterns they have if it means I can avoid hotel chains' own booking systems. At least I already know the dark patterns of booking.com.
Tried to book a one of Starwood Preferred Guest hotel. Had to create an account, but this is a given. For a single room there are 12 offers you can choose, really simple /s.
The cheapest offer is for "SPG Member Exclusive. Am I one? How do I know? I guess I'm not, just created an account, but let's try anyway since it isn't disabled. First thing they try to upsell me on a room with 3X price. Can skip it. Now the price is different, it includes VAT. Why would you not include VAT in the first place? You have to pay taxes in Europe. Ok, apparently the price includes 5% discount and a free wifi (wow). Let's try others since 5% is not that much.
Oh, if you click the small link you can see the prices without the upselling attempt. Again no VAT included, but why is this "Save 10 percent - prepaid rate" somehow more expensive then the 5% discounted rate? Maybe this is for non-exclusive people.
On the first sight "Weekend package" offer is just more expensive, no value added. Unlike other offers it doesn't say this in the title, but it includes breakfast.
There is "SPG Member Exclusive: Flexible rate". Still don't know if I'm exclusive enough, but the rate itself isn't flexible (I blame bad translation though, part of the interface is in my language, part is in English). It's just a cancellable offer.
There's also a cancellable offer for non-exclusives such as myself.
Other offers either include breakfast or are some expensive packages.
I have given up, since I don't know if I'm an Exclusive Member. The price on booking.com is the same as non-exclusive one, so really no point in booking here.
Other strange thing for me. Every place on the site mentions some points. Is this an American thing? If you just want to book a room it feels like you are paying a premium, so the points-people can pay less. How I guess it works: you choose more expensive hotel/room to defraud your employer, so you can get more points to use on your own travels. Just a wild guess though.
IHG.com hotel was no better. Again confusing pricing, where what you see first is never the end price. If you choose breakfast, it changes rate but also includes some "Additional guest charge" (???). There's "IHG® Rewards Club Advance Purchase" and also "IHG® Rewards Club" and normal rate. Don't know which can I take.
The 'points' thing here is even more ridiculous - you can pay more to get more points, like pay X more per night and get Y more points.
In the end I booked on booking.com. It was 3.65% cheaper through the hotel chain site if I'm exclusive enough (still don't know). I probably lost some points, but I don't want to be constrained in my travels with some loyalty programs. SPG only has 7 hotels in my country and IHG has 5, so I would have a hard time earning those points. Also I almost always travel privately so can't defraud my employer for points.
Tried to book a one of Starwood Preferred Guest hotel. Had to create an account, but this is a given. For a single room there are 12 offers you can choose, really simple /s.
The cheapest offer is for "SPG Member Exclusive. Am I one? How do I know? I guess I'm not, just created an account, but let's try anyway since it isn't disabled. First thing they try to upsell me on a room with 3X price. Can skip it. Now the price is different, it includes VAT. Why would you not include VAT in the first place? You have to pay taxes in Europe. Ok, apparently the price includes 5% discount and a free wifi (wow). Let's try others since 5% is not that much.
Oh, if you click the small link you can see the prices without the upselling attempt. Again no VAT included, but why is this "Save 10 percent - prepaid rate" somehow more expensive then the 5% discounted rate? Maybe this is for non-exclusive people.
On the first sight "Weekend package" offer is just more expensive, no value added. Unlike other offers it doesn't say this in the title, but it includes breakfast.
There is "SPG Member Exclusive: Flexible rate". Still don't know if I'm exclusive enough, but the rate itself isn't flexible (I blame bad translation though, part of the interface is in my language, part is in English). It's just a cancellable offer.
There's also a cancellable offer for non-exclusives such as myself.
Other offers either include breakfast or are some expensive packages.
I have given up, since I don't know if I'm an Exclusive Member. The price on booking.com is the same as non-exclusive one, so really no point in booking here.
Other strange thing for me. Every place on the site mentions some points. Is this an American thing? If you just want to book a room it feels like you are paying a premium, so the points-people can pay less. How I guess it works: you choose more expensive hotel/room to defraud your employer, so you can get more points to use on your own travels. Just a wild guess though.
IHG.com hotel was no better. Again confusing pricing, where what you see first is never the end price. If you choose breakfast, it changes rate but also includes some "Additional guest charge" (???). There's "IHG® Rewards Club Advance Purchase" and also "IHG® Rewards Club" and normal rate. Don't know which can I take.
The 'points' thing here is even more ridiculous - you can pay more to get more points, like pay X more per night and get Y more points.
In the end I booked on booking.com. It was 3.65% cheaper through the hotel chain site if I'm exclusive enough (still don't know). I probably lost some points, but I don't want to be constrained in my travels with some loyalty programs. SPG only has 7 hotels in my country and IHG has 5, so I would have a hard time earning those points. Also I almost always travel privately so can't defraud my employer for points.
If you're only booking a hotel, rather than picking a travel vacation package, you're better off calling the hotel directly to make a reservation. The reservation staff almost always have sole discretion to negotiate prices within limits. If you are polite, and have checked for the best price you can find online, they will often match or beat that price. The trick is truly the politeness factor - "I SEE IT ONLINE FOR $50 LESS ONLINE, YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT CHEAPER!!!" will get you absolutely nowhere. They have discretion to negotiate, but are not required to do so. They deal with enough rude people on a daily basis that the moment you are abrasive, you can expect the wiggle room to vanish.
I do this very often, sending an email yields 5%-15% discount on booking.com prices. But that works for independent hotels. What I write here about are chain hotels, which have terrible online experience and contacted through email gave me 10-20% higher prices than online comparison sites (which also include commission for the site).
Edit: this is in Europe though
Edit: this is in Europe though
Out of interest how would you negotiate?
"I SEE IT ONLINE FOR $50 LESS ONLINE, YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT CHEAPER!!!" seems to be the classic style of negotiating car prices. It seems to be the only bargaining chip that you have available to you.
"I SEE IT ONLINE FOR $50 LESS ONLINE, YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT CHEAPER!!!" seems to be the classic style of negotiating car prices. It seems to be the only bargaining chip that you have available to you.
"I see it online for $50 less, could you possibly make it cheaper? If so I'll pay right away. "
"Could you possibly..." or "Is there any way..." is precisely the right phrasing. And again, the tone used makes or breaks the deal. Furthermore, explicitly quoting the online price is the wrong approach. Ask if there's any way to get $X (online price minus $20-30/night), without explicitly mentioning that you're comparing to the online price. Don't shove the online price in their face (ie: demanding they meet or beat, which is aggressive posturing). Only refer explicitly to the online price if you can't seem to charm them without doing so.
The long and short of it: you're trying to win over another human being to be on your side. You don't demand that a company or "lowly employee" meet your expectations. Tact for the win!
The long and short of it: you're trying to win over another human being to be on your side. You don't demand that a company or "lowly employee" meet your expectations. Tact for the win!
OK, the bargaining chip is effectively the same, just the politeness in asking is different. I was quoting from the parent.
I suspect the volume implied would be counter-productive.
In this case 'SPG Member Exclusive' means 'a rate exclusively for SPG Members.' you're an SPG Member if you signed up for their loyalty program and got a member number.
Regarding defrauding your employer, Japanese hotels are worse. They have plans with actual $20 or $30 general use vouchers included in some plans to "top you off" to the limit of your business travel approval.
Exclusive just means only if you're a member. But you are, you just signed up.
I think they term it that way for 2 reasons: first, to try and build some fake loyalty and familiarity (you're already exclusive!) but secondly it's so their normal rate is the same as other booking agents - they can offer it cheaper by making it "member exclusive"
With regards to flexible / cancellable that's usually exactly what flexible means - you can cancel it (and as a flow on, can change the dates, since worst case you can just cancel and re book)
Extra guest charge is most common with a rate that includes breakfast and lastly I've always assumed those double points rates are a cheap way to abuse people booking business expenses.
Hope that helps...
I think they term it that way for 2 reasons: first, to try and build some fake loyalty and familiarity (you're already exclusive!) but secondly it's so their normal rate is the same as other booking agents - they can offer it cheaper by making it "member exclusive"
With regards to flexible / cancellable that's usually exactly what flexible means - you can cancel it (and as a flow on, can change the dates, since worst case you can just cancel and re book)
Extra guest charge is most common with a rate that includes breakfast and lastly I've always assumed those double points rates are a cheap way to abuse people booking business expenses.
Hope that helps...
I've seen this dark pattern at Agoda.com first. They have been doing it for a long time.
Agoda and Booking are owned by Priceline Group, so this makes sense.
[deleted]
As opposed to Trivago which is the worse kind of real life spam in existence?
Thanks, I'll keep using Booking
(Though the flashing things are annoying - but you can discover using booking then go to the hotel page and book there)
Thanks, I'll keep using Booking
(Though the flashing things are annoying - but you can discover using booking then go to the hotel page and book there)
> but you can discover using booking then go to the hotel page and book there
Just a shame they often charge the same price so I think why did I bother doing them the favour?
Just a shame they often charge the same price so I think why did I bother doing them the favour?
Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't, at least in Europe. If you're price sensitive, always check both before booking it.
Some examples: I've booked directly with the place to pay half price for one night in an amazing farm in Iceland; I've got the opposite last time I booked a night in a cheap hotel in Portugal. I usually check the Booking.com price and then check directly with the hotel then "Oh, but I've seen this cheaper in Booking.com", "Yes, please do the reservation via Booking.com then".
Some examples: I've booked directly with the place to pay half price for one night in an amazing farm in Iceland; I've got the opposite last time I booked a night in a cheap hotel in Portugal. I usually check the Booking.com price and then check directly with the hotel then "Oh, but I've seen this cheaper in Booking.com", "Yes, please do the reservation via Booking.com then".
For most hotel chains if you join the loyalty programs then when you log in and book directly you get the member price which is usually $10-20/night lower.
There are no things flashing or animated elements on Booking.com's website. Maybe you're confusing with some other website?
I see booking.com's BOT posting the same multiple jobs on @whoishiring's thread every month. Ex: Sept 2017 => https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15148950
Looking at all the negative observations about booking.com here, I'm curious. Has anyone from here actually applied to any of their job postings on @whoishiring ?
How has your experience been?
The one positive thing I've seen is that they mention that they sponsor work visas for their successful candidates (in Europe / Amsterdam location only I think).
Looking at all the negative observations about booking.com here, I'm curious. Has anyone from here actually applied to any of their job postings on @whoishiring ?
How has your experience been?
The one positive thing I've seen is that they mention that they sponsor work visas for their successful candidates (in Europe / Amsterdam location only I think).
I did. I received an offer that I turned down for unreleated reasons.
My experience is of some years ago (2/3 years).
A very nice experience honestly, great process of interview.
My experience is of some years ago (2/3 years).
A very nice experience honestly, great process of interview.
I did, two years ago. It was okay, one or two skype interviews, including a live coding one, and also a technical challenge on HackerRank. They also want to hear about suggestions and ideas for improving the site, how to implement and measure the impact. It helps to read their tech blogs and learn about the way they do things.
I think dutch also give a tax exemption for employees who were hired abroad.
booking.com hiring process is very well established, there is nothing wrong with it.
Recruiter contacted me on LinkedIn. Went through the process. It was a Hacker Rank challenge, technical phone interview with coding, on-site interview with coding, systems design and culture fit interviews.
I've considered applying but I didn't like the idea of becoming a Perl developer to be honest. If they were looking for Go or Python developers I would probably have applied by now as I think Amsterdam is a great city.
When I was contacted they where looking for over-all experienced developers. From listening to some of their developers podcasts they found most developer picked up Perl development and didn't have any problems with the language.
At the time was following `Damian Gryski` presentations how they used redis for their cookie management for such a large web-site. Also was reading into their back-end systems and over-all cultural inside the business.
Though was super excited about the interview with them although froze up during the interview process.
Nice to see other people here went through the interview processes and had a great time. I just suck at interviews.
At the time was following `Damian Gryski` presentations how they used redis for their cookie management for such a large web-site. Also was reading into their back-end systems and over-all cultural inside the business.
Though was super excited about the interview with them although froze up during the interview process.
Nice to see other people here went through the interview processes and had a great time. I just suck at interviews.
As a digital nomad, this "dark pattern" has proved very useful for me a lot of times. It is a worse experience to check a place and when you look again it is not available anymore.
>It is a worse experience to check a place and when you look again it is not available anymore.
I'm not sure that's what the GP cares about - it's a dark pattern because I don't think any of those statements are true. Sure they are unverifiable, but I wouldn't be surprised if you book a room, open a incognito widow, and find the same hotel again with the same number of rooms available. Or if you try to book a room 1000 years in the future, and you'd also find that "there are only 3 spots available".
I'm not sure that's what the GP cares about - it's a dark pattern because I don't think any of those statements are true. Sure they are unverifiable, but I wouldn't be surprised if you book a room, open a incognito widow, and find the same hotel again with the same number of rooms available. Or if you try to book a room 1000 years in the future, and you'd also find that "there are only 3 spots available".
Technically, all are true. Sometime the formulation is quite counter intuitive though. The best known exemple is probably the "there is only one room left" message for single room apartments. This has been considered a bug for years. The thing is: any change to the web site, however small, including fixing a bug, must prove conversion-successful in an experiment before going in production. This is both great and dramatic, as you can imagine: great that anyone can change anything as soon as proven successful, but dramatic that often you feel entrenched in local minima.
This experiment driven culture is great for the business though. So far.
Disclaimer: worked there for a bit.
Disclaimer: worked there for a bit.
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.
"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.
Basically exactly this. I looked at Oshkosh WI for the middle of October next year. Middle of the week, in fact, a Wed night, 1 night, 1 person stay:
"Only 1 room left!"
"Booked 14 times in the last 24 hours!" - Oh yeah? This hotel in Appleton WI, with 80 rooms, had FOURTEEN rooms booked for a random Wednesday in September 2018 through booking.com ALONE in the last 24 hours.
Screw dark patterns, that's outright deception, if not fraud.
(edited, I originally said October 2018, when in fact my example was for Wed September 19, 2018).
"Only 1 room left!"
"Booked 14 times in the last 24 hours!" - Oh yeah? This hotel in Appleton WI, with 80 rooms, had FOURTEEN rooms booked for a random Wednesday in September 2018 through booking.com ALONE in the last 24 hours.
Screw dark patterns, that's outright deception, if not fraud.
(edited, I originally said October 2018, when in fact my example was for Wed September 19, 2018).
To be fair, it said the room has been booked 14 times in 24 hours...not that it had been booked for that specific date 14 times in 24 hours.
To be reverse-fair, they know exactly how people will understand it.
You'd be surprised. Keep in mind it's a Dutch company, Dutch are very direct and explicit in communication.
This is a perfect example of a dark pattern.
The site said “14 bookings in the last 24hours”. You read it as “14 bookings for the date you searched for, in the last 24 hours”.
I don’t believe this is an accident.
The site said “14 bookings in the last 24hours”. You read it as “14 bookings for the date you searched for, in the last 24 hours”.
I don’t believe this is an accident.
Speaking of booking way ahead of time, how would you go about making a reservation for the 2024 total eclipse in Mexico? Most booking site allow booking somewhere close to a year in advance, but wonder if anyone had experience with reaching out directly.
Even if you could, that sounds like a bad idea. There's a lot of churn in the hotel industry, the hotel you're booking 7 years out may not even exist in its current form that far in the future, and if it does new/better/cheaper hotels might have popped up next to it. 18 months in advance should be plenty of time.
That was a good one :D , system didn't even realize its trying to fake too much.
I booked a room on booking.com a few weeks ago. There was an accident and I booked a smoking room---technically my fault. But since booking.com is just yet another internet middleman, their response is "you should have looked closer" and the hotel, which didn't have any non-smoking rooms that night, let me know there's no refunds for same-day online booking and told me to get bent (after hours on the phone trying to talk to people). I did not stay in the room, but they already had my money and I'll never see it again...
I really dislike how companies like booking.com (and others) plus physical merchants enable "gotcha capitalism" like this, where each party points at the other and they both keep my money.
booking.com: 'talk to the hotel for a refund'
hotel: 'talk to booking.com for a refund'
I really dislike how companies like booking.com (and others) plus physical merchants enable "gotcha capitalism" like this, where each party points at the other and they both keep my money.
booking.com: 'talk to the hotel for a refund'
hotel: 'talk to booking.com for a refund'
```
booking.com: 'talk to the hotel for a refund'
hotel: 'talk to booking.com for a refund'
```
Yea I experienced this last March. Charegbacks are not easy for regular consumers. Their customer service are trained to never give refunds (based on first-hand experience).
You'd have to be a valued client of your bank to have a successful dispute. And it is the only way I believe.
Both parties (booking.com and hotel) simply won't budge.
Yea I experienced this last March. Charegbacks are not easy for regular consumers. Their customer service are trained to never give refunds (based on first-hand experience).
You'd have to be a valued client of your bank to have a successful dispute. And it is the only way I believe.
Both parties (booking.com and hotel) simply won't budge.
-
Europeans can charge back just fine.
Not always. If a firm wants to avoid that, it's not too hard to do so - it's got to make sure that the transfer was customer initiated, because those aren't necessarily reversible. There are other exceptions too, some of which are probably regional, non-EU-wide. SEPA isn't implemented identically across the EU, incidentally, so not just are the rules locally interpreted, the tech is too; so none of this is quite as simple as it seems it should be.
And then of course there's the fact that reversing charges doesn't change legal liabilities, so this isn't a protection you can rely on if the receiver feels they're in the right and are willing to take (sometimes fairly simple) legal steps.
It's definitely still a nice protection to have, since at least it places some burden of proof on the recipient.
And then of course there's the fact that reversing charges doesn't change legal liabilities, so this isn't a protection you can rely on if the receiver feels they're in the right and are willing to take (sometimes fairly simple) legal steps.
It's definitely still a nice protection to have, since at least it places some burden of proof on the recipient.
These dark patterns are the result of successful A/B tests. They don't do it because they enjoy it. They do it because the data says the platform performs better. And I know this because I met dozens of Perl developers at conferences and I asked them explicitly about the FOMO spreading.
The question is: how can one measure the long term impact these dark patterns have on future sales?
I do my best to avoid using booking.com precisely because of these dark patterns. I love Perl, there are just a few big companies that are still using Perl as their main backend technology and whenever I can I try to give them money. Especially when they're getting involved in the community and are trying to grow the ecosystem like booking does. But when their web site tries to apply the cheapest manipulation tricks on me, I avoid them.
The question is: how can one measure the long term impact these dark patterns have on future sales?
I do my best to avoid using booking.com precisely because of these dark patterns. I love Perl, there are just a few big companies that are still using Perl as their main backend technology and whenever I can I try to give them money. Especially when they're getting involved in the community and are trying to grow the ecosystem like booking does. But when their web site tries to apply the cheapest manipulation tricks on me, I avoid them.
You let the backend stack of a site determine if you visit it or not?
Why not? I'd be more inclined to give my money to a company too, if I knew they were playing nicely in the community, and contributing positively to the ecosystem of one of my own personal pet projects.
It's not a standard that most people will use to decide, but most people don't love software... but if you do love your software and it's not leading-edge anymore (or even if it is, I don't know much about modern Perl development and I assume that is because it's unfashionable...) you want companies that also love that software to do well, and keep putting their improvements back into the upstreams.
It's not a standard that most people will use to decide, but most people don't love software... but if you do love your software and it's not leading-edge anymore (or even if it is, I don't know much about modern Perl development and I assume that is because it's unfashionable...) you want companies that also love that software to do well, and keep putting their improvements back into the upstreams.
"looks like some kind of ab testing bug or round-robin servers."
Definitively AB testing. The website runs hundreds of experiments simultaneously, on a few pages. Although in theory all the experiments are independent in practice it is often not the case and some bugs show only in some combination of 2 or more experiments. Especially, in such crowded web pages, even technically distinct experiments influence each others UX wise, which can cause bugs of their own (like, two distinct experiments displaying two seemingly contradictory messages). Eventually, the mix of experiments a given user is subjected to can look a lot like an outright lie or bug or scam or deceptive practice (especially when it's a combination of small dark patterns of course), and I think that's what's happening here.
Definitively AB testing. The website runs hundreds of experiments simultaneously, on a few pages. Although in theory all the experiments are independent in practice it is often not the case and some bugs show only in some combination of 2 or more experiments. Especially, in such crowded web pages, even technically distinct experiments influence each others UX wise, which can cause bugs of their own (like, two distinct experiments displaying two seemingly contradictory messages). Eventually, the mix of experiments a given user is subjected to can look a lot like an outright lie or bug or scam or deceptive practice (especially when it's a combination of small dark patterns of course), and I think that's what's happening here.
I was booking a place in Budapest this summer on Booking.com, and there was a specific area I wanted to be in. I searched for that area and found a place that was marked as having a certain location that was perfect for me. Upon arriving, it turns out this was just where their "main office" was, and the specific apartment I was renting was situated in a different area, several tram rides away. I tried to get my money back for this clear deception but to no avail.
Their excuse? The real address was available to me in my confirmation email, i.e. after I had already paid. If you can't trust their map, it serves no purpose whatsoever. A few weeks later I was trying to find the listing but it appears to have been removed.
I'd switch in an instant if someone built a useful alternative to Booking. Agoda is the same deal as far as I can tell, and it is owned by the same parent company.
EDIT: Airbnb is great - I use it a lot, more than Booking - but sometimes you just want a more professionally run hotel, hostel or apartment. In fact, after cancelling that place I ended up booking a studio with Airbnb at the last minute.
Their excuse? The real address was available to me in my confirmation email, i.e. after I had already paid. If you can't trust their map, it serves no purpose whatsoever. A few weeks later I was trying to find the listing but it appears to have been removed.
I'd switch in an instant if someone built a useful alternative to Booking. Agoda is the same deal as far as I can tell, and it is owned by the same parent company.
EDIT: Airbnb is great - I use it a lot, more than Booking - but sometimes you just want a more professionally run hotel, hostel or apartment. In fact, after cancelling that place I ended up booking a studio with Airbnb at the last minute.
I don't think booking is at fault here, they just list the hotels they don't make sure that they are hotels are honest or whatever, it's like renting on airbnb on a room with no reviews
When you reserve with Booking.com, they don't even charge your credit card. At least that's how it has been the last 100 times when I used them. How come it was different this time?
They offer both types of bookings. Some are paid online immediately, others are paid at the hotel in checkout.
Generally speaking if it's not a flexible/refundable rate you will probably pay online from what i noticed but don't quote me on that.
Generally speaking if it's not a flexible/refundable rate you will probably pay online from what i noticed but don't quote me on that.
Did you initiate a chargeback?
No. Booked with debit card, not credit card, which as far as I know makes the requirements for chargebacks higher.
This is why us Americans always use credit. So much protection.
Airbnb?
I've been burned by booking.com's 'Free Cancellation' UI shenanigans a couple of times. In both instances I swear that I saw the free cancellation banner next to the room I'm reserving. Instantly after reservation, I receive an email saying 'non-refundable', or $400 fee for cancellation. The first time I thought I made a mistake, but when my wife saw the same thing... well, something fishy is going on.
It is deception at it's finest. My siblings experienced this first hand and I told them, no more booking.com, ever.
Also, the cancellation was 1 month away from actual booking but they do not care. They just want to decieve (scam?) you and get your money.
Luckily, the bank sided with us. The dispute is a sure process as long as they value you as a customer.
Also, the cancellation was 1 month away from actual booking but they do not care. They just want to decieve (scam?) you and get your money.
Luckily, the bank sided with us. The dispute is a sure process as long as they value you as a customer.
Hm hm. Chrome extension that takes a screenshot of every page you visit on certain sites (and adds the hashes to a blockchain for further proof).
Free cancellation means they don't need your CC. If they get your CC they got you by the balls.
Using the online travel gangsters has been the worst part of travelling for years. Extorting business practices against small hotels, high fees, and when you check the small print/certificate you understand that profits go to a tax evasion paradise. If something goes wrong for whatever reason their so-called customer service is of no help whatsoever. Only one room left is not even technically lying. It just means that small hotels give rooms only one by one to the extorters, hoping to sell as many of them via a cheaper channel. Unfortunately it is not easy to find a small hotel directly on the web, search results a completely polluted by booking sites. In that context dark patterns on their sites are just a minor detail, I don't expect any better from companies with such ethics.
The only time I used booking.com, the hotel wouldn't honor my reservation, even though I showed them the booking confirmation number. They were sold out and simply said "not my problem, third party and we never got it". Who knows who's fault it was but with something as crucial as a hotel in a specific location/date I tend to just book through the actual hotel site from now on.
I’m surprised this isn’t more common.
I went through a period where I was frequenting the same hotel ~10 times a year. They knew me by name, and I knew most of them. There was no such thing as “full” - they would move heaven and earth to accommodate repeat custom.
When they perceive your ‘loyalty’ as being to a portal, and me as years of repeat custom .. well what would you do?
(Unrelated tip: If a hotel is booked out, visit them directly. Most don’t list all their rooms on portals, for similar reasons)
I went through a period where I was frequenting the same hotel ~10 times a year. They knew me by name, and I knew most of them. There was no such thing as “full” - they would move heaven and earth to accommodate repeat custom.
When they perceive your ‘loyalty’ as being to a portal, and me as years of repeat custom .. well what would you do?
(Unrelated tip: If a hotel is booked out, visit them directly. Most don’t list all their rooms on portals, for similar reasons)
If you are booking with a chain you usually get better perks by booking through their site, especially if you are a loyalty member (even the most basic level often gives perks so it's worth signing up). Some are even cheaper by booking directly (e.g. Accor group).
The place where booking.com really shines is for individual hotels and smaller properties like bed and breakfasts - often they only use one provider and it's usually booking.com/Priceline (at least here in Europe). You could just call them directly once you've found it though...
The place where booking.com really shines is for individual hotels and smaller properties like bed and breakfasts - often they only use one provider and it's usually booking.com/Priceline (at least here in Europe). You could just call them directly once you've found it though...
They're cheaper directly because booking.com takes 15 or 18% comission.
You would think so, but I travel a lot and it's been extremely rare that the price in cash at the hotel is less than Booking.com's price.
This happened to me a couple of months ago. If you contact CS they will help you get a room somewhere else at the hotel expense. :)
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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...
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...
Given the state of affairs with online reservations, going to your local travel agency is is undeniably the future. Oh the irony.
I tried to book my honeymoon with a travel agent. We figured we could use some good advice, and (at least in canada) when you book with them you get some bonus insurance.
They basically told me it wasn't worth their time unless we were booking a cruise.
They basically told me it wasn't worth their time unless we were booking a cruise.
> They basically told me it wasn't worth their time unless we were booking a cruise.
How is this even possible? Did you take away their time? Were there people waiting who would book a cruise?
My experience above is from Germany.
How is this even possible? Did you take away their time? Were there people waiting who would book a cruise?
My experience above is from Germany.
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Hopefully it won't be "powered by Watson". God I can already imagine the commercials.
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.
"Dark patterns" are one thing.
They tell me that they booked 14 rooms at the Red Roof Inn in Appleton WI for Wed September 19, 2018, in the last 24 hours.
I'd love to call the Red Roof Inn and ask them if that's the case.
Other than that, that sounds like outright deceptive practices, fraud in marketing.
They tell me that they booked 14 rooms at the Red Roof Inn in Appleton WI for Wed September 19, 2018, in the last 24 hours.
I'd love to call the Red Roof Inn and ask them if that's the case.
Other than that, that sounds like outright deceptive practices, fraud in marketing.
Technically, they may have booked 14 rooms in 24 hours. Of course, there's no way all of those bookings were for Sept. 19th. It is deceptive but probably follows the letter, but not the spirit, of any applicable laws.
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What are some alternative sites that send you guests? I have used hotels.com sometimes (has dark patterns too, but fewer of them). I would definitely prefer using something that was more...sensible.
I would naïvely think that booking directly with hotels would be cheapest, but I have definitely seen deals on these aggregators that were unavailable on the same hotel's own site – which is the only reason I even think about using them.
I would naïvely think that booking directly with hotels would be cheapest, but I have definitely seen deals on these aggregators that were unavailable on the same hotel's own site – which is the only reason I even think about using them.
Oh, don't get me started on hotels.com. It's seems to be quite common for hotels.com to sell you the room with breakfast (in countries where breakfast typically is included) but when you get the confirmation, there's no mention of any breakfast and the booking code is for a room without breakfast. So when you arrive at the hotel and they say: "Nope, breakfast is not included" you have nothing to prove that you booked with breakfast, in fact, to the hotel your reservation is the very definition of a no-breakfast reservation.
This happened to me and we had to run through a lot of hoops to eventually get hotels.com to reimburse us. It helped that we had called them for parts of our reservation because all calls are recorded and the operator clearly stated that breakfast was included.
The same thing happened to my father who was a bit more alert and noted the missing breakfast from the confirmation. He then had to call them something like five times for a confirmation that actually said breakfast was included. Each time they sent him a new reservation but it wasn't until the last call it did say breakfast was included.
This happened to me and we had to run through a lot of hoops to eventually get hotels.com to reimburse us. It helped that we had called them for parts of our reservation because all calls are recorded and the operator clearly stated that breakfast was included.
The same thing happened to my father who was a bit more alert and noted the missing breakfast from the confirmation. He then had to call them something like five times for a confirmation that actually said breakfast was included. Each time they sent him a new reservation but it wasn't until the last call it did say breakfast was included.
The aggregators I looked into working with (5+ years ago) required that you offer rate parity. You had to guarantee that for a given room+date+conditions you would give the lowest price to them as you would anywhere else.
The way around it was to offer more flexibility for direct bookings or throw in breakfast.
The way around it was to offer more flexibility for direct bookings or throw in breakfast.
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What do you expect, from an entity that advertises via spreading malware/PUPs?
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/detections/pup-optional-bookin...
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/detections/pup-optional-bookin...
"Potentially Unwanted Program"? That's a polite way of putting it.
> PUP.Optional.Booking
> This is the detection for a family of potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) that show advertisements hailing from the booking.com domain. This PUP predominantly uses scheduled tasks to trigger the advertisements.
Wouldn't mind seeing that looks like. Regardless, "scheduled tasks" definitely sounds like unsolicited EXE execution, which is firmly on the "no thanks" side of shady.
> PUP.Optional.Booking
> This is the detection for a family of potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) that show advertisements hailing from the booking.com domain. This PUP predominantly uses scheduled tasks to trigger the advertisements.
Wouldn't mind seeing that looks like. Regardless, "scheduled tasks" definitely sounds like unsolicited EXE execution, which is firmly on the "no thanks" side of shady.
as InfoSec Taylor Swift once said, "potentially unwanted programs" are just malware with a legal team.
I believe these don't come from the actual company itself, rather from other people abusing their affiliate program (same thing happens with Amazon, for instance, so I guess you can't trust them either).
This happened to me with Expedia. They advertised a lower rate on a different room at the hotel I was looking at... Didn't catch until after I checked out that the advertisement was for a different day than my search results. (Because obviously I'm just as happy to stay at a random hotel just off the interstate in rural Ohio a week after my trip as during it?)
Thankfully, Expedia has good customer service and fixed things for me, even though it was not a cancelable reservation.
Thankfully, Expedia has good customer service and fixed things for me, even though it was not a cancelable reservation.
Same issue. Went up to Dallas for a few days to avoid Harvey floods, and the $99 site rate increased to $147 on the weekends.
It's a FOMO machine.
I use it to find places, filtering by "wifi available", and then contact them directly.
I use it to find places, filtering by "wifi available", and then contact them directly.
Basically this. I use booking as the yellow pages, you search for the hotels you want and give them a call directly.
Cheaper prices and no cuts for parasite middleman.
Cheaper prices and no cuts for parasite middleman.
So parasite middleman is for you a company that enables you to find those hotels in the first place?
Do you find all middleman parasitic or is there something else booking should do to stop being in this group?
Do you find all middleman parasitic or is there something else booking should do to stop being in this group?
I've had some bad experiences with third parties (middlemen) when booking hotels online. Anytime there is a problem, the other two parties point the fingers at each other, and you, the customer, is left to deal with it. I don't find all middlemen parasitic, but in this case, it's less risk for me to deal directly.
Sometimes only booking.com has rooms and the hotel site itself doesn't, and in that case, I will still use booking.com.
Sometimes only booking.com has rooms and the hotel site itself doesn't, and in that case, I will still use booking.com.
Can someone actually comment on the issue in the article instead of dropping random anecdotes? Sounds like a bug rather than a dark pattern?
EDIT: The submission title said something about Booking.com using dark patterns but it has been changed now.
EDIT: The submission title said something about Booking.com using dark patterns but it has been changed now.
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.
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
My wife and I use Windham Group, and use their app. Very nice booking experience. And if we're driving late we can push a button on the app and a reservation specialist finds us the nearest available room and calls us with the booking. The app also gives a maps link.
Obviously I'm an odd one out – I quite like booking.com. Sure, it'd probably be a bit nicer if it didn't have all the flashing red shit everywhere, but broadly speaking I've found it's pretty useful for locating hotels and getting the details in a consistent manner. I've never had a booking made through it cancelled or anything like that, and the prices haven't been obviously inflated versus those offered booking directly with the hotel.
Obviously it sounds like other have had a worse experience…
Obviously it sounds like other have had a worse experience…
How about calling it malicious UX? Bad is not a strong enough word. Or maybe hateful, or exploitive.
What are the realistic alternatives to Booking.com though?
When I'm planning a journey the reviews and search by area features of Booking.com make it possible for me to gain some understanding of going rates and hotel quality, but the process leaves a lot to be desired for both me, the customer, and the hotel.
I can search with Booking.com yet book directly with the hotel, but that means I can't review the property and help others.
When I'm planning a journey the reviews and search by area features of Booking.com make it possible for me to gain some understanding of going rates and hotel quality, but the process leaves a lot to be desired for both me, the customer, and the hotel.
I can search with Booking.com yet book directly with the hotel, but that means I can't review the property and help others.
One time we canceled a hotel with free cancelation but the hotel chared us 1100$ anyway. (why the hell did the hotel had our credit card details?!)
We contacted booking.com and asked to get a refund, and they said we are right but it takes time...
So we contacted Mastercard and said that booking.com won't refund us. Mastercard checked with the hotel and when they didn't get a good enough answer from them they refunded us 1100$.
Then booking.com followed up on our earlier request for refund and also didn't get a good enough answer from the hotel so they refunded us 1100$ from their money...
Sometime after that we got charged 1100$ by Mastercard... I think that booking.com got a complaint from the hotel that Mastercard reverted the charge and then opened a dispute with Mastercard to get their 1100$ that they refunded us...
At least now I know to just go and tell Mastercard every time I get a little resistance from some business who won't rightfully refund me.
Sometime after that we got charged 1100$ by Mastercard... I think that booking.com got a complaint from the hotel that Mastercard reverted the charge and then opened a dispute with Mastercard to get their 1100$ that they refunded us...
At least now I know to just go and tell Mastercard every time I get a little resistance from some business who won't rightfully refund me.
Could someone explain to me any reason why it would be better to book through any third party instead of directly through the hotel?
Convenience.
If the service provides value for research and an easy booking process for roughly the same price/advantages then there's little benefit to booking directly.
I like booking.com because the description of the hotel, photos, and conditions are presented in a consistent format which makes comparing options and locations very efficient. The details have largely also matched my experience which is nice.
I started using the site because I found that their cancelation conditions were better than booking with the hotels directly. More recently, this is less of the case as the differential in price for a refundable booking has increased greatly in some cities, at least for my needs.
Their solicitation for reviews process is pretty good. People’s expectations of service an amenity tend to be pretty unreliable but there are enough substantive reviews to filter out the extremes.
It is slightly convenient to have a diverse range of accommodation types booked in one system but not enough to balance the dark patterns. I no longer recommend the site to those who aren’t at least a little savvy with travel and pattern spotting.
If the service provides value for research and an easy booking process for roughly the same price/advantages then there's little benefit to booking directly.
I like booking.com because the description of the hotel, photos, and conditions are presented in a consistent format which makes comparing options and locations very efficient. The details have largely also matched my experience which is nice.
I started using the site because I found that their cancelation conditions were better than booking with the hotels directly. More recently, this is less of the case as the differential in price for a refundable booking has increased greatly in some cities, at least for my needs.
Their solicitation for reviews process is pretty good. People’s expectations of service an amenity tend to be pretty unreliable but there are enough substantive reviews to filter out the extremes.
It is slightly convenient to have a diverse range of accommodation types booked in one system but not enough to balance the dark patterns. I no longer recommend the site to those who aren’t at least a little savvy with travel and pattern spotting.
It's frequently cheaper through the aggregator. The aggregators force the hotels to sign a contract stating that they won't sell cheaper on their own site and since you seem specifically interested in their hotel (maybe you're a business traveler with a points card) they have less reason to compete on price.
This is no longer true anymore as EU regulations recently forbid that.
Mainly the convenience of seeing many options in one place. Sure, if you know you want a specific Hilton in Seattle, then go directly to their site. When we looked for places to stay in Norway and Denmark last summer, booking.com was a great resource to learn about many options and the going rates. Once we narrowed things down to a couple options, we could look at the direct site or book through Booking since many smaller places bounced us back there anyway.
If you book enough stays through them, you get a genius status and get a discount on some of the hotels. Something like 10% in some cases if I remember correctly.
It's pretty well hidden though. I've never seen it advertised on the homepage: http://loyaltylobby.com/2013/07/22/booking-com-genius-award/
It's pretty well hidden though. I've never seen it advertised on the homepage: http://loyaltylobby.com/2013/07/22/booking-com-genius-award/
Besides dark patterns, there is something else that annoys me even more: the cluttered and inconsistency of the UI itself.
It is not possible or really not intuitive to do something like entering a couple of places you would potentially want to go to, select 2 adults and 3 children, filter them on criteria like free parking, free wifi and sort the results on price.
While this sounds like a pretty common pattern, the experience is really bad. Sorting is messed up by sponsored hotels, not consistent on the price of a room or the room I configured or the price is the cheapest room without wifi...
On top of it, they run all kind of experiments. This causes more confusion for me, because I just learned to do something in a specific way.
I still use it, not because of the great usability or great service but because there are no real better alternatives.
It is not possible or really not intuitive to do something like entering a couple of places you would potentially want to go to, select 2 adults and 3 children, filter them on criteria like free parking, free wifi and sort the results on price.
While this sounds like a pretty common pattern, the experience is really bad. Sorting is messed up by sponsored hotels, not consistent on the price of a room or the room I configured or the price is the cheapest room without wifi...
On top of it, they run all kind of experiments. This causes more confusion for me, because I just learned to do something in a specific way.
I still use it, not because of the great usability or great service but because there are no real better alternatives.
Ha. As someone on the other side of this, we used to spoon feed availability to OTAs that do this. Set up a competitive price, and it worked wonders. Now they just took it to another level, which would make that technique work even better, Booking sites never know the exact availability of any property. It could look like only a couple left, but there could be blocks, cancellations, who knows why the hotel decided not to give all the rooms. That is part of the inspiration behind priceling getting hotelnija and expedia releasing its own. Even hostelworld had their own PMS for years. So dont believe when there is only a few left.
The annoyances described by the author sounded like they relied on Javascript and graphics.
This made me wonder if the site relies on Javascript or graphics.
As an experiment, I just wrote a small POC command line script for
Easily adaptable to bulk searching, producing CSV, etc.
Again, this site does not require Javascript or graphics for getting price lists.
Easy to avoid the "dark patterns" and just retrieve the desired data.
I use a text-only browser.
This made me wonder if the site relies on Javascript or graphics.
As an experiment, I just wrote a small POC command line script for
1. searching for hotels by keyword
2. obtaining the hotel ids
3. searching availability using the hotel id
4. printing prices, etc.
Easily adaptable to bulk searching, producing CSV, etc.
Again, this site does not require Javascript or graphics for getting price lists.
Easy to avoid the "dark patterns" and just retrieve the desired data.
I use a text-only browser.
I just did a booking through them and noticed that the price changed per the selected language, the difference was 124 vs 169 (eng).
Booking in english gives you quite the disadvantage.
Booking in english gives you quite the disadvantage.
I have heard from some people that booking.com takes such a high percentage that you can call some hotels and get a better price going directly.
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Sadly I fell for the various tricks described here and hastily booked a room on holiday recently.
Having said that, my family of 4 adults with different credit cards made excellent use of their generous £15 referral reward kicking back both ways to save a significant amount on the total booking cost.
Having said that, my family of 4 adults with different credit cards made excellent use of their generous £15 referral reward kicking back both ways to save a significant amount on the total booking cost.
I tried to book a holiday last year and had the feeling basically all booking sites are broken.
No where did anyone show me the real price of what I was buying.
No where did anyone show me the real price of what I was buying.
booking.com is a deliberate scam. Their business model is to lock customer into reservation that he would have to cancel and booking.com will keep the money.
Booking.com puts a lot of pressure (through dark UI patterns) to make a reservation ASAP promising that you can cancel at any time. In many cases cancellation simply isn't possible - too late etc.. They are just keeping the money and this is exactly what their business model is after.
Booking.com puts a lot of pressure (through dark UI patterns) to make a reservation ASAP promising that you can cancel at any time. In many cases cancellation simply isn't possible - too late etc.. They are just keeping the money and this is exactly what their business model is after.
No this is ridiculously far from the truth.
They make an awfull lot of money selling actual room nights (think Google-scale a lot, per employee, although the money culture in both firms are opposite to each other), and actually do cancel bookings and even sometime refund non cancelable ones. They are definitively harsh on the business side, especially when negotiating commissions with hotels, especially since it's always easy to justify ("that's for our users"). But this is not a scam.
You might have had a bad experience. No amount of money spent on customer care will ever balance out a big firm being 100% money driven as opposed to reputation driven, and fundamentally not caring for an individual user. So yes when you are that one user who felt through the cracks it feels bad indeed.
They make an awfull lot of money selling actual room nights (think Google-scale a lot, per employee, although the money culture in both firms are opposite to each other), and actually do cancel bookings and even sometime refund non cancelable ones. They are definitively harsh on the business side, especially when negotiating commissions with hotels, especially since it's always easy to justify ("that's for our users"). But this is not a scam.
You might have had a bad experience. No amount of money spent on customer care will ever balance out a big firm being 100% money driven as opposed to reputation driven, and fundamentally not caring for an individual user. So yes when you are that one user who felt through the cracks it feels bad indeed.
```No this is ridiculously far from the truth.```
Easy to say for someone who haven't experienced their deception first hand.
GP is correct. That is part of their scheme to extract more revenue.
Easy to say for someone who haven't experienced their deception first hand.
GP is correct. That is part of their scheme to extract more revenue.
I had actually. Once, because of their website insisting on showing dates for which there are availabilities, I ended up booking for the wrong days, something that I could not cancel. At the time I though I made the mistake so didn't complain. Only later did I realize that's how the website works (they force a date in the web session because it converts better). Had I given them a call at the time, chances are that they would have refund me, but this also I learnt only later.
I've also been "stolen" a car booking on rentalcars once, another company belonging to Priceline. I'm not as familiar with rentalcars as I am with booking so can't be as confident but even in that case I doubt the business plan is based on such erroneous bookings. For sure, the incentive to fight fraud they are victim of is bigger than the incentive to fix the UX dark patterns that are causing the erroneous bookings and eventually bring them some extra profit.
Also, let's not forget that companies abusing dark patterns or being slow to fix "bugs" when they convert well, are not merely soulless organisations driven by profit. They are made of teams driven by OKRs, which are made of individuals driven by their desire to fit in the culture (or their perception of it).
I've also been "stolen" a car booking on rentalcars once, another company belonging to Priceline. I'm not as familiar with rentalcars as I am with booking so can't be as confident but even in that case I doubt the business plan is based on such erroneous bookings. For sure, the incentive to fight fraud they are victim of is bigger than the incentive to fix the UX dark patterns that are causing the erroneous bookings and eventually bring them some extra profit.
Also, let's not forget that companies abusing dark patterns or being slow to fix "bugs" when they convert well, are not merely soulless organisations driven by profit. They are made of teams driven by OKRs, which are made of individuals driven by their desire to fit in the culture (or their perception of it).
I had zero issues cancelling bookings that were free to cancel (within a time limit - usually 24h before the arrival date). But some aren't and are explicitly marked as such
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Never use booking.com not only dark patterns but when you finally get it "right" (I was nearly caught out) their price is way higher than everyone else anyway. Scumbags
This isn't true, I've used it since 2011 and for more than 30 reservations and even compare using meta-aggregators like HotelsCombined and whenever Booking has the room and it's same price or cheaper than others. It may happen that they don't have a room while other websites do.
in my previous trips i have never seen a room rate at one of these booking type websites that i wasn't able to get by going directly to the hotel website or by phoning them.
they are parasites.
they are parasites.
Is 'dark UX patterns' the new meme for something that has already been around for >15 years? <insert bold red marquee here>
Red texts hurrying you to make a reservation in virtually every <div> 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.