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Orbitz Presenting More Expensive Hotels to Mac Users

Why some of you are talking like Orbitz has placed higher pricing for Mac users? Please stop. That is not true.

Read the original article and educate yourself bit on subject of demographics in advertising before making such claims :)

What Orbitz is doing has been normal in advertising/retail since.. the 60's .. and closest example I can give is the header banner advert at MacRumors forums you are browsing right now. (hint: its being targeted to you partly based on your hardware/OS/browser etc. and maybe based on statistical predictions of your household income). You are not seeing the same advertisement as I am, and that is *not* random.

Nothing wrong is being done. Your parents were targeted demographically and you are being targeted demographically. Get over it. :)
 
NAG said:
Lets pretend you and your friend go to a car dealership. You get quoted a fair price. Your friend gets quoted a higher price (pick a reason, female, old, young, whatever) and must haggle to get it down because they don't need the super expensive floor mats. When confronted on the issue the person claims that data shows that female, old, young, whatever people prefer expensive floor mats.
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Many people actually DO prefer fancier hotel rooms when they travel. There are often hundreds of rooms available at my destination-- do you think I should automatically be shown the Motel 6 first?
 
Benjy91 said:
I guess my $1800 PC means im just a cheapskate who cheaps out on everything.
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No, it means you don't quite understand how statistics work. ;) If the sample size was you and only you, 2 things :

- Maybe PCs would get the higher rate options displayed on top
- The statistics would be bunk because the sample size would be ludicrously too small.

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Crayo said:
Why some of you are talking like Orbitz has placed higher pricing for Mac users?
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Because they didn't read the article. Only the headline.

Crayo said:
Read the original article and educate yourself
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Why ? Then they won't have anything to post about it and won't be able to up their post count to get cool avatars!
 
FoxMcCloud said:
IYou could be very well off and earn a very high wage. You like the finer things in life and like premium holidays. you search on this Orbitz site for a holiday on your very expensive machine made out of gold running a variety of operating systems, yet because it ain't a Mac, you are excluded from seeing these premium holidays..
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I have to assume you have no real experience booking hotels online or anything similar. No one is being prevented from seeing anything. This is just about showing you the recommended choices for you personally first, since no one (sane) wants to be slapped in the face with 10,000 unfiltered options. You can easily change the filter settings to see different offerings.
 
FoxMcCloud said:
I find this offensive.

You could be very well off and earn a very high wage. You like the finer things in life and like premium holidays. you search on this Orbitz site for a holiday on your very expensive machine made out of gold running a variety of operating systems, yet because it ain't a Mac, you are excluded from seeing these premium holidays.

How about show everyone your entire stock listings, you know, like every other travel company, and let the consumer decide which one they want. Don't seclude listings based off of what OS they are running because that certainly is not a way of indicating what holiday someone would pay for!

I know certain Mac users who are tighter than a pensioner with their money, I know many who are very liberal with their money and I can say the same for non Mac people. Some go out of their way to get the cheapest Mac possible whether it's a decade old as long as it works and some who buy a new iMac every year simply because they can. I also know other people who spend thousands every other month buying electrical or hifi or computer goods yet dont own a Mac. Surely these people are entitled to premium holidays?

I understand they are simply filtering the results and showing the more expensive ones to Mac users, but what if the Mac user doesn't want to be bombarded with expensive hotels immediately? They might get turned off and go to a competitor site. Likewise the Windows user might want an expensive hotel but finds the website is generalising and showing them cheap hotels..essentially saying "hey, I understand your are poor and can't afford an elitist computer therefore here are some cheap ass hotels to go along with your cheap ass computer".

****ing morons.
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I'm trying to figure out your problem. You don't like advertising? But you understand why they do it? You just don't want them to try targetting you?

I guess...Orbitz won't get your business. I'm pretty sure everyone here is ok with that.
 
KnightWRX said:
No, it means you don't quite understand how statistics work. ;) If the sample size was you and only you, 2 things :

- Maybe PCs would get the higher rate options displayed on top
- The statistics would be bunk because the sample size would be ludicrously too small.
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Exactly.

It never stops amazing me how some people try to debunk consumer statistics based on their personal preferences or preferences of ten people they know ;)
 
kind of crazy i think... I save money and buy other things cheap as possible so i can afford a MAC in the first place.
 
KnightWRX said:
No, it means you don't quite understand how statistics work. ;)
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Sorry it was meant as more of a dig at the people here posting who seem to genuinely believe that the only reason that PC users don't have a Mac is because they can't afford it. Or insinuate that all PC users are cheap.

I know its an overall stat and im in the minority.
 
kiljoy616 said:
Well sure what did you expect news on new Apple TV 100 inch for $999.99. :rolleyes:

Still interesting article for those with 7 year old macs who don't fall into their category but still use Apple products.

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hahaha! Pain is pleasure, pleasure is pain, frustration is our friend.

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Look daddy pretty eye candy, so pretty eye candy and plastic. :p
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Well to me it looks clear perfect best stylish and it is the best smartphone
I ever had and it does all things i need it to do! Unlike a childish go buy phone daddy glas splitting less functions ******
 
While in this case Orbitz is only showing Safari users higher priced alternatives, I have had a case recently where it appears that a major casino chain (Bally's) was actually pricing the same room differently depending on what browser I was using. While I cannot prove that this is the case, here is my story:

I was booking a room in April 2012 to stay at the Showboat Casino in Atlantic City. Some of my friends were also staying there and booked thier room before me. They sent me their confirmation page so I could go online the same day and try to book the room at the same rate. Using my iPad, I could not get the same rate. The rate they were quoting me, for the exact same room type and travel dates, was $100 more over the 3 day stay. Then I went on my Mac and still was quoted the higher rate. I called Bally's reservation line directly and they told me some BS about how my friend must have got a promotional rate and there must be no rooms left at this "great deal". They were not very convincing or accomodating and I wound up hanging up on them with a bad taste in my mouth.

I then decided to call my friend and told her I couldn't seem to get the same rate she got and asked her to walk me through how she booked the room. I followed her steps exactly and continued to see the higher rate using my Mac. She then went on her Windows PC, using Internet Explorer, and saw the lower rate she booked at when she started a new reservation. Then I booted up my hardly never used desktop PC and tried using Internet Explorer to book the room and lo and behold - I was quoted the exact same rate she booked at! I was able to successfully book the room at the lower rate and received my confirmation e-mail. As another independent test my friend went on her iPhone and used Safari to try and book the same room. Using her iPhone she was quoted the same higher rate I was quoted on my iPad and Mac! The only reason I can think for the disparity is that Bally's website was detecting which browser I was using and revising price accordingly.
 
meh...no big deal. orbitz and the like are just a scam anyway. they take the daily rate, add their fee on top of it and sell it as a "deal." just call the hotel you want to stay at. its always cheaper and if you ask nice, sometimes theyll throw a discount on or give the aaa rate. but i dont have these problems, luckily my wife is a gm for a hotel chain and we stay anywhere in the chain for $35/night.
 
fmaxwell said:
They will be crushed, because they really value cheap-ạss customers who don't want to spend much money at their site.



Maybe if you're going there for an half an hour with a hooker, but if you're going to stay a week or two and you might value things like good mattresses, better soundproofing, pools, hot tubs, good exercise facilities, nice hotel restaurants, complimentary breakfast, a suite so that you can sleep in the bedroom while your wife/GF/kids are in the other room.



Then buy a PC or don't use Orbitz. I don't want to see you whining on MacRumors, but there it is anyway.



I'd rather spend money on both. If you need to stay at a roach motel near a railroad track so that you can afford to rent a moped for half a day, go for it.
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Why are you so defensive over this? Seriously you sound like a freaking child.

I don't like to be up-sold. I won't use Orbitz now. Why do you have such a problem with it?
 
chrono1081 said:
Why are you so defensive over this? Seriously you sound like a freaking child.

I don't like to be up-sold. I won't use Orbitz now. Why do you have such a problem with it?
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Are you really not understanding what Orbitz is doing here ? They're not upselling you at all. They've only noticed statistically, users of Mac computers go for 20-30$ more expensive offerings than PC users. These are statistics built over probably a very large sample size of their customer base.

Thus, the default sorting order was made different as a convenience feature. You can still sort it manually yourself.

There is no great conspiracy here. Orbitz simply made it so Mac users don't have to scroll down or go to page 2 to get the option they statistically choose more than PC users.
 
KnightWRX said:
Are you really not understanding what Orbitz is doing here ? They're not upselling you at all. They've only noticed statistically, users of Mac computers go for 20-30$ more expensive offerings than PC users. These are statistics built over probably a very large sample size of their customer base.

Thus, the default sorting order was made different as a convenience feature. You can still sort it manually yourself.

There is no great conspiracy here. Orbitz simply made it so Mac users don't have to scroll down or go to page 2 to get the option they statistically choose more than PC users.
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I understand 100% perfectly what they are doing here, I just don't like it but for some reason no one gets that. I'd rather be shown the same offerings in the same order regardless of the system I am on.
 
chrono1081 said:
I understand 100% perfectly what they are doing here, I just don't like it but for some reason no one gets that. I'd rather be shown the same offerings in the same order regardless of the system I am on.
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Then god forbid you click to sort by your favorite metric, the same one on either platform, and get exactly what you want. :rolleyes:

Again : it's a convenience feature implemented because statistically, you're the minority. Why shouldn't they cater to the majority of their user base and offer them convenience ? Especially since what you want is still right there.

I don't think you understand 100% at all. I think you understand from the point of view that you're the center of the world or something.
 
chrono1081 said:
Yes thats exactly what I think :rolleyes:
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Well, do you agree or not that this is a convenience move based on statistical data and thus they implemented the most convenient sorting algorithm based on a majority of their user base ?

If you don't, I don't understand what you feel is wrong with what they've done. Is there some other form of sampling they could have used to get better results that you're aware of and you'd like to share with the class ?
 
KnightWRX said:
Well, do you agree or not that this is a convenience move based on statistical data and thus they implemented the most convenient sorting algorithm based on a majority of their user base ?

If you don't, I don't understand what you feel is wrong with what they've done. Is there some other form of sampling they could have used to get better results that you're aware of and you'd like to share with the class ?
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Its up-selling, plain and simple.

And with that I'm done with this thread. I don't get why everyone is harping on my opinion when its simply that, MY OPINION.
 
chrono1081 said:
Its up-selling, plain and simple.

And with that I'm done with this thread. I don't get why everyone is harping on my opinion when its simply that, MY OPINION.
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It's not up-selling. It's sorting based on convenience. Statistically, Mac users were already purchasing these higher priced options. Orbitz simply saved these users a few extra clicks by presenting what was statistically already being purchased in the first rows. This is like Google presenting results on the first page you actually want to click based on statistical data that those links from page 2 were what people wanted most.

Not. a. hard. concept.

Everyone is harping on your opinion because it doesn't to grasp what is going on. Be done with it and continue living without understanding what you just opposed to right here. Your opinion was formed based on lack of understanding of the situation.
 
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