Hotel Booking Sites Have Allegedly Been Using Misleading Tactics to Make Us Book Faster

By
George Yang
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I bet my boss’s car and my office cat that whenever you log in to a hotel booking site and search for your desired hotel, you’ll notice something.

There are always just a few rooms left.

And as you spend two seconds to think of whether to book it now or book it two days later, you see a small pop-up, stating that someone has just booked a room, and another 3,928,291 people are looking at the remaining two rooms.

Oh, crap, you thought. If I think for two more seconds, would all the rooms be taken?

You then did a search again, wondering if there’s a similar hotel nearby.

There is, and shockingly, the price is almost the same! Pretty sure the demand won’t be so crazy—

—you click in and wtf only a few rooms left as well.

At only $50 a night, you think it’s a good deal and so, you booked it immediately because 2,983,112 people are looking at the last room you’re eyeing for.

Then all of a sudden, the total cost came out to be $80 with all the other hidden costs.

But it’s okay: you’re faster than 2,983,112 people!

What you didn’t realise is that apparently, you’re being manipulated.

And as a matter of fact, I wasn’t aware of this only after this report came out.

6 Hotel Booking Sites Investigated by United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)

Just like you, I thought that the sense of urgency while booking hotels is real.

Apparently, they could have been orchestrated.

According to the report, the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has been investigating six hotel booking sites, namely Expedia, Booking.com, Agoda, Hotels.com, ebookers and trivago.

They claimed that the sites have used pressure selling and misleading discount. In addition, commissions to the sites played a role in the order of the hotels.

For example, they had given false impression of a room’s popularity (ah…no wonder) and did not state the full price upfront (ah…no wonder X2).

What’s even interesting is that they placed the nearly-sold-out rooms on top of search results, so it’ll pressure us to book faster. Come to think of it, that’s very true leh: it seems like hotels are making big bucks because all the search results I’ve got are usually left with one or two rooms.

No wonder X3.

Cannot Anyhowly Liao

According to the CMA chairman, “The CMA has taken enforcement action to bring to an end misleading sales tactics, hidden charges and other practices in the online hotel booking market…These have been wholly unacceptable.”

They also added that not all sites implemented these tactics, though I’ve to admit that 99% of the times, the hotel room that I’m looking at is always been looked at by many other people as well #justsaying

The platforms that were investigated have therefore agreed to cooperate by agreeing to these conditions by 1 September 2019:

  • Search results: Making it clearer how hotels are ranked after a customer has entered their search requirements, for example telling people when search results have been affected by the amount of commission a hotel pays the site.
  • Pressure selling: Not giving a false impression of the availability or popularity of a hotel or rushing customers into making a booking decision based on incomplete information.
  • Discount claims: Being clearer about discounts and only promoting deals that are actually available at that time.
  • Hidden charges: Displaying all compulsory charges such as taxes, booking or resort fees in the headline price. Sites can still break that price down, but the total amount the customer has to pay should always be shown upfront.

However, do note that this is a UK enforcement: it’s unknown whether by 1 September 2019, we Singaporeans are still going to see “1 room left!” in our search results.

But at least now we know. So take a deep breath when you’re booking your next vacation, and remember to scroll down the search results for an impartial result.

If you watch at least 10 minutes of brain rot content daily, you must know this:

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George Yang
Email: [email protected]