Ripped Off By A Mac? Why Apple Users May Pay More For Booking Hotels With Orbitz

[Seedersandleechers]

Online travel site Orbitz Worldwide [NYSE: OWW] is testing a system that offers Apple [NASDAQ: AAPL] Mac users pricier hotels than their Windows counterparts, it was revealed Tuesday.

The controversy results after Orbitz found that Mac users spend on average 30 percent more on hotel rooms than Windows users visiting the site and decided on the profiling trial, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The system works by offering Mac users more expensive "recommended" hotels at the top of searched for suggestions.

Usually Mac or Windows users would see the exactly the same list of "suggested" hotels, but with the new system Mac users will be shown a modified list of plusher options.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/356448/20120626/apple-orbitz-hotel-pricier-expensive-tracking.htm

[tridim]

1. Marketers know, Apple people will pay any price for anything.

[justiceischeap]

2. I use a Mac not because I'll pay any price for anything

I use a Mac because they run better and I don't have to upgrade my hardware to upgrade my OS. I also use a Mac because I don't want to have to worry about virus' all the time. It's also my priciest purchase I ever make.

The fact that Orbitz wants to rip me off because I happen to use a Mac doesn't mean that I'll pay any price for anything.

[tridim]

6. Psst, it's not 1992.

[TeamPooka]

8. Starbucks vs Dunkin Donuts

They know Mac users lean toward Starbucks so why not charge them more?
Profiling is a bitch.
Especially when it's you being profiled.

[EOTE]

9. Windows 7 will run fine on 10+ year old hardware.

And the free antivirus/malware (MS Security Essentials) will keep you safe from just about any kind of malware. Windows 7 actually runs fairly decently on a single gb of RAM, you won't find any current, non-mobile version of OSX which runs decently on 1gb.

[targetpractice]

11. Define "fine"...

Will it still look and act like Windows?

Then no thanks.

Folks like Macs because they like how Mac OS X works. There is no argument in the world that could make me prefer Windows, and I use it everyday alongside Mac OS X… Once I'm finished with the work that requires Windows, I shut it down and try not to think about how horrible it is.

[EOTE]

12. It will look and act like Windows 7, which is pretty damned nice and smoothly.

I generally find that people like Macs because they know extremely little about technology and hence don't fully appreciate how much they're being ripped off. I make $300 computers all the time for friends and family that run Windows 7 perfectly well. I very frequently get comments about how amazed people are that a $300 computer runs so incredibly fast and well. I don't believe my current main gaming rig (a Windows 7 box) has been rebooted at all this year. It sees zero downtime. $300 will get you an Apple keyfob at the Apple store.

[Lionessa]

28. +1 Well said.

I'm still on XP and still just love it.

Had to work on a Mac for a short time, and hated it. No access to tweak or anything. Drove me nuts after having had easy access to regedit, and msconfig, and hardware analysis, and more. If it was on the Mac, no one knew where and I couldn't find anything similar. There was more, but I attributed that just to the fact that after one system, nearly any other system will feel foreign under the fingers, and I hated the mouse they used.

[EOTE]

31. XP's gonna continue to chug along for a while.

I think MS inadvertently hurt themselves with XP because it's been so reliable and software companies will continue to write for it for quite some time due to its large adoption. A number of people wisely avoided upgrading to Vista when it came out because XP suited them fine. Windows 7 has fixed all the issues with Vista, but there's still a large number of people who are perfectly content with XP and have no reason to upgrade. I definitely understand where they're coming from, but I tend to just prefer the look of 7 to XP, and Aero can be a pleasure to work with. I'll probably be passing over Windows 8 when it comes out, I don't see all that much that it will offer that I don't already get with 7.

[Lionessa]

33. Certainly next one will be 7, but this one is old and chugs along just fine, as you say.

[pnwmom]

32. The techies I know strongly prefer

Macs. But they only got their engineering PhD's from Stanford and MIT, so maybe they don't count.

[Lionessa]

34. I agree that at that level of education, Macs may offer some benefits

with some applications, but most Mac users don't have PhDs from MIT or Stanford, so they're paying a lot of money for things that they don't understand and can't utilize like those techies.

[EOTE]

35. The people I know who are extremely poor at logic strongly prefer to use anecdotes.

But I only got my first IT job the day I turned 16 and currently support thousands of government workers, so what do I know. I've also worked on pilot programs for various iPhones, iPads and Macbooks while they were all deemed unfit for prime-time FDA use, so I'm clearly not qualified to provide an opinion here.

[pnwmom]

37. You must be referring to yourself since your post was a generalization based on the people you know.

[EOTE]

39. I mentioned that was how I generally felt. So it should be clear that's a generalization.

And it's fairly clear why I feel that way. Why people would pay upwards of twice as much for the exact same hardware and in exchange lose the ability to do anything in terms of a decent upgrade is well beyond me. As for why a techie would be interested in purchasing something like that is even more bizarre. Why would a techie be interested in something that's so locked down in terms of an upgrade path? That's like a mechanic buying a car where you couldn't even replace one's tires, yet alone suspension and engine upgrades. I've built my own PCs since my teens, all the techies I know (my coworkers and friends) do the same. None of them have any desire to spend more than twice as much on hardware that hardly has any upgrade path and whose upgrades also tend to cost more than twice as much as their PC counterparts.

I purchased a GTX 285 (GPU) for my computer in early 2009, I believe for around $300. More than two years later (a lifetime in terms of GPUs), I saw a GTX 285 for Macs used on eBay for $450. Meanwhile, used 285s for PC were going for about $120. It's the same damned hardware, just with a BIOS that's been flashed to work on Macs. Manufacturers obviously know that Mac users are suckers at least to the extent that they'll pay ridiculous sums for the exact same hardware. Being a PC user (especially one that makes their own) means never getting fucked over like that.

[meaculpa2011]

27. You're not being ripped off...

Just pick a hotel farther down the list.

[Seedersandleechers]

10. Marketers know Apple people won't spend money on trash.

[Puregonzo1188]

3. I use a Mac. And I won't be using Orbitz. Never have actually.

I usually go with priceline.

[Initech]

4. I never recommend using sites like Orbitz.

And this is coming from someone who books a lot of travel. If you see something that looks like a good deal chances are it's not if you look at the fine print. Sites like Priceline and Hotwire - they look like a.bargain but you think they're going to put you in the Plaza for $300 a night? You name your price - they pick where you stay, and that's usually a gamble. Book directly from the hotel - you know exactly what you're getting when you do. Book directly from the airlines as well - they don't charge outrageous extra fees the way travel sites do. I can't stress enough - book direct and eliminate the sleazy middle who will hose you at every opportunity.

[frazzled]

16. Somewhat wrong

Just got a good price on Orbitz for a room at a Vancouver hotel that was $20-$30 more on the hotel's web site. The hotel was offering 20% for a 48-hour period, while Orbitz was offering the same room for 25% off. You just have to do a bunch of research when you're booking stuff, and it can change day to day and minute to minute.

[Initech]

19. I'm definitely not arguing fluctuating travel prices.

However I booked a flight to Kentucky on Hotwire one time. It was on Northwest Airlines at the time. And something happened where the passenger had to leave a day early. In order to change the flight - I had tp call Hotwire l, wait on hold for like an hour and a half. In addition to paying the airline's change fee of $100 you had to pay an additional $150 Hotwire fee PLUS the fair difference - then wait 24 hours for them to clear it with the airline. After that crap I will always book direct.

[frazzled]

20. Expedia charges no change fees

Orbitz, I believe, may charge a $30 in some cases. You got rooked with Hotwire (which I never use because it seems suspicious). As for the fare difference, that is the airline policy anytime you have to change. If the fare is higher for the flight you wish to change to, you'll pay the difference in price in addition to the change fee.

As I said, Expedia (and some other travel booking flights) have no fees of their own (you will, of course, pay the airline to change):

Expedia doesn't charge you any fees to book, change or cancel nearly all flights, hotels, cruises, cars and vacation packages!

Book your roundtrip flights for a single-carrier airline, hotel, car or any cruise and unlike other travel sites and agencies, you'll never pay a booking fee.
Expedia does not charge a penalty if you need to make a change to your trip.
There are NO Expedia change or cancel fees on hotels, cruises, cars, and virtually all flights and packages.*
You can book with flexibility-the kind you only get from Expedia. Other online travel agencies may charge you $30 to change your flight or hotel, or even $75 to cancel your cruise. Not us.

[Initech]

21. That might be a recent thing. They didn't use to.

[renate]

22. I don't travel much but for those who do, I just read about some apps for booking at the last minute

You do get to see ahead of time which hotel you'll be in.

http://www.usatoday.com/LIFE/usaedition/2012-06-22-Booktonight-sites_ST_U.htm

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. I never us any of those sites

My friend got kicked off an overbooked plane once and they refused to refund her money because she had purchased her ticket through one of these discount sites. No guarantees.

[Auggie]

29. I agree

Better to call the hotel directly. The price might be "better" on-line but you can get dinged for extras that don't show up in the room rates, like parking.

[DaveJ]

5. Corporations wouldn't be corporations if they stopped finding new innovative ways to rip people off.

nt

[discopants]

7. Ripped Off By Orbitz.

Orbitz is doing the selective search results … it's their business, Apple is not ripping off anybody in this deal. Mac users logging onto Orbitz are offered higher-priced, better-rated hotels first, not charged more money for the same hotel rooms.

[RitchieRich]

13. :P

[Lionessa]

30. Oh, that's mean. LOL

[frazzled]

14. You've misinterpreted this

The article specifically states that Mac users won't pay more for the same room. It's just that they're marketing the better hotels and rooms higher on the lists. You can always just press "sort by price": you'll pay the same price for any given room as any other computer user.

[DontTreadOnMe]

15. Misleading Article

Mac users are NOT charged more, they are just "offered" a higher priced hotel as the default search result. If a Mac user sorts the hotel choices by price, they get ALL the same hotel prices as the PC user. THis is a NON-STORY being hyped into pretend news.

This entire "controversy" sounds like it was created in a marketing room...

[RitchieRich]

17. NPR version:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/06/26/155756095/orbitz-shows-mac-users-pricier-hotel-options-big-deal-or-no-brainer

— "Orbitz executives confirmed that the company is experimenting with showing different hotel offers to Mac and PC visitors, but said the company isn't showing the same room to different users at different prices. They also pointed out that users can opt to rank results by price."

— "The average household income for adult owners of Mac computers is $98,560, compared with $74,452 for a PC owner," according to Forrester Research.

And as Dignan says in CNet, "Apple customers are known to pay a premium for their Macs, strong design, and integrated software," and apparently are willing to spend more on other things as well.

[RebelOne]

18. I have a Mac and never used Orbitz, so I guess I will not in the future

if i have to book a hotel room. I have AAA that gives me some big discounts on hotels.

[GeorgeGist]

23. Since when is better Customer Service ...

a rip-off.

[Cronkite]

24. Is it true you can't replace the internal battery on Apple products?

I saw a related piece about this orbitz deal and the author was saying that why wouldn't people that buy apple pay more- they buy a computer that costs twice as much as a PC and has a limited life due to a fixed battery.

Everything else aside- is it true you can't replace the battery?

[EOTE]

36. It depends on what Apple products you're referring to.

As far as I know, all Apple mobile devices (iPad, iPhone, iPod) have integrated batteries which can't be replaced by the typical user. Apple laptops, AFAIK, all have user replaceable batteries.

[villager]

26. So what the hell do they offer those of us using Linux!?

[kudzu22]

38. What do they show Linux users?

Motel 6 maybe?