Travel shopping site Orbitz is offering more expensive hotels to Mac users because the company found Mac users prefer more luxurious rooms, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Orbitz noted that it was is not showing different prices for the same room to different users, but was presenting pricier hotels more prominently to Mac users than those using Windows. Users can rank hotel options by price and get the same listings no matter what platform they are using.
Orbitz found Mac users on average spend $20 to $30 more a night on hotels than their PC counterparts, a significant margin given the site's average nightly hotel booking is around $100, chief scientist Wai Gen Yee said. Mac users are 40% more likely to book a four- or five-star hotel than PC users, Mr. Yee said, and when Mac and PC users book the same hotel, Mac users tend to stay in more expensive rooms.
"We had the intuition, and we were able to confirm it based on the data," Orbitz Chief Technology Officer Roger Liew said.
The WSJ goes on to note that the average household income for adult owners of Macs is $98,560, according to Forrester Research, versus $74,452 for a PC owner. The paper also says that some high-end hotels see bookings from Mac users hugely out of proportion with their user share on Orbitz.
The targeting efforts are part of Orbitz's "predictive analytics" efforts -- using gathered data to offer more tailored results to shoppers in order to generate more revenue.
i always book direct with hotel and get the same or better prices then 'the discount sites'
not to mention - when you use discount sites you don't gain any benefits.. when I show up I get free room upgrades and high floors at no extra charge
I read and witnessed - a ' discount site ' user shows up and gets the cheapest room / offering the hotel has on low floors with not so good views and they will not offer any up upgrades unless you pay 'retail' upgrade..
so no surprise when I read this ... LOL
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Not much different than a car salesman showing a guy wearing a Rolex a Cadillac while showing a guy wearing a timex a sunbird haha
+1
They aren't showing different prices to Mac and PC users, which would be unethical. They're targeting their search results based on previous purchases by other users. Makes sense to me.
Not much different than a car salesman showing a guy wearing a Rolex a Cadillac while showing a guy wearing a timex a sunbird haha
i guess the answer is clear your website cache and cookies..before looking..
and leave the rolex at home..
__________________
Apple MacBook Pro 13" 2.9GHZ i7 12GBs
Apple Thunderbolt display 27", Macally Bluetooth Keyboard
Internal 1 x OCZ Deneva2 SSD 480 GBs ( removed superdrive - installed 750GB HD in place )
LaCie Stark 1TB for time machine, Apple Track Pad
Moshi Keyboard cover ( to catch the drool when surfing rumor sites )
Orbitz Presenting More Expensive Hotels to Mac Users
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