

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

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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6thSigma
Wouldn't making the search itself provide enough clear intent of buying a
certain trip regardless of your previous browsing?

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mcintyre1994
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?

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hvass
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.

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

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t0
Recent evidence also points to user-agent affecting price.

