How to get the lowest hotel price on Expedia?
Just did the same search, about 1 minute apart, on Expedia for a hotel with the same dates, number of occupants and filter both in a window where I was logged into Expedia and an Incognito Chromium one and got wildly different results for many properties.
Logged in:
Incognito:
The price when logged in is almost triple! It's the same room, of which 3 are left, and they even give an extra day to cancel with the cheapest price. It allows me to purchase directly without logging in, so the lower price is maintained.
Now, this is one of the larger differences but some times, the logged in price was slightly lower than the incognito one, so going incognito does not seem to guarantee the best price. Perhaps there are other prices too, depending on referral links, ads, etc (There is an office supply store that gives almost 30% discount when coming via an ad but in that case, it is always consistent).
Notice that the address is the same but the phone number is different. Presumably so that agents know which pricing level callers are coming from.
How can one get Expedia to show its best price for hotels?
Best Answer
Some sites are now doing price adjustments based on your setting, your history, and even your location / device type. Makes sense if they get more money.
Orbitz targets Mac users with more expensive hotels is one example.
A study on price at Northeastern University indicated:
We saw price steering from Sears, with the order of search results varying from user to user. We saw price discrimination from Home Depot, Sears, Cheaptickets, Orbitz, Priceline, Expedia and Travelocity, with product prices varying from user to user.
So what user attributes trigger personalization? The problem is that real users have a long history of browsed sites, searches, clicks and online purchases that we as researchers don’t know. Thus, when we observe personalized results in our experiments, we can’t tease out the underlying cause.
So the reason may not be apparent, but many online retailers do seem to be starting to do this to some degree. Even a travel site that I've worked with (not mine) has started showing 'recommended' flights (often the ones with higher margins for them).
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How do you ask for a lower hotel price?
Making the CallGive yourself plenty of time by contacting the hotel as soon as your travel dates are set. Call and ask to speak with a manager, and if a friend referred you to that hotel or hotelier, make sure to mention that their establishment was recommended and that your friend sang their praises.Will hotels price match Expedia?
Expedia has a Hotel Price Guarantee program. If you find a lower rate online for the same dates, it will refund the difference.Where can I find the lowest hotel rates?
The 17 Best Websites for Booking Hotels at the Cheapest Prices [2022]- The Hotel's Own Website.
- Kayak.
- Expedia.
- Priceline.
- Momondo.
- Booking.com.
- Hotels.com.
- Orbitz.
Is it better to book with Expedia or directly to the hotel?
Direct bookings are more profitable to them than ones through third-party sites that take a cut, and staff generally can see right in the computer system how a room was booked. They're definitely checking the computer when a guest drops a hint about an upgrade.The #1 Travel Hack Of 2020 - How ANYONE Can Get 50% Off Hotels
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Images: Andrew Neel, Andrew Neel, Han Sen, Andrea Piacquadio