Ask HN: Should I turn off cookies when booking on Expedia/Orbitz/Hipmunk etc?

6 points·hvass··5 comments

Does anybody in the industry have any insights if prices change when you show clear intent of buying a certain trip? Should I go incognito? Thanks

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Wouldn't making the search itself provide enough clear intent of buying a certain trip regardless of your previous browsing?

I'm not completely sure, but I think the idea might be that if you've come, got a price, left, come back later to get a price for the same thing, then between leaving and coming back you've shopped around and settled on them. Since you've settled on them your intent now is to buy from them, so they try to get more money. The thing that confuses me though is that if you're shopping around you're probably price sensitive enough to notice?

Yes, thats what I meant. But isn't it interesting if you're not price sensitive? You look few times on a certain website and the time you intend to buy you see prices are a bit higher, but you just want to get it done, so you purchase nonetheless?

In a way, it's a strong strategy for price sensitive people, since they will spend a lot of time to get the best deal possible.

As far as I know, the margins are extremely low per booking, so it seems like a viable strategy, I just don't know if it's implemented, I have no inside knowledge.

I have noticed changes on various sites, so my general rule is to disable while shopping around.

Recent evidence also points to user-agent affecting price.

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