In fact, this is the most primitive trick and never in my lifetime has it been so that I checked into a crowded hotel. Booking.com almost always shows such data that there are almost no places and you need to hurry. No need to hurry, work with your head. On my last trip to Italy, I specifically asked the owners of the hotel — an elderly married couple — if it was true that everything was packed. Not true — only 4 rooms out of 16 were occupied.
Immediately on the screenshot you can see how incredibly the price has fallen and how lucky I am — only 1 number and a discount! :)
The same games are played with us by the domestic Островок.ги:
Comment of the "Island": The number of rooms is not a trick of the Island, we do not play such games. The number of numbers that you see on the site ostrovok.ru — this is the real number of rooms that the hotel has provided for sale, and not because we have another 100,500, and we are catching up with demand in this way. Each (especially large chains) hotel has its own room sales system, and services are one of the ways. If it is written on the Island's website that there is only one number left — he is really left alone.
If there is no language barrier, then dial the hotel by phone and ask them about prices and availability. Finding a phone is not difficult, and you will be very surprised how the reality of the same booking.com it differs from the reality of the hotel itself — a lot of places, prices are lower, you will still be offered a free breakfast to sell the room, a discount program and much, much more.
Systems live with a percentage of sales, and therefore the first issue is not the most profitable for you. Again, we do not react to spoilers and systematically look for what we really need.
There are such concepts as "cold sales" and "hot sales" in sales. If you see a ticket for the first time and found it incredible in some way by coming from another site, then the offer shown to you is a cold sale. This ticket is often very profitable and you really want to buy it. But you, as a rational person, go to the services and websites of airlines that are familiar to you. Then you come back warmed up and click on the most profitable ticket to BUY. I guarantee you that the price will rise. And the more you study the conditions of reservation, docking, duration and alternatives, the more the price increases. It can really grow by leaps and bounds.
Here is an example of choosing a ticket on the website OneTwoTrip.ru which I often use, which does not prevent them from gambling with me:
The first search for a ticket and the study of the conditions of carriage and other data warming up my status as a buyer from the reservation system:
Repeated search with the decision to buy this ticket after 4 minutes:
My system is lucky — it has my history and confidence that I am very likely to make a purchase :) But let's go to this site and perform a search in Incognito mode in Google Chrome — the ticket has started to cost from 12,490 rubles. already 13,297 rubles. — the price of my reflection is already 807 rubles.
That's the price I have, as if a new and cold buyer for the same flight (we came from another computer with a German IP address)!
And of course there are only 1-2 seats left, but most often we fly in half-empty planes.
The same thing happens on all reservation systems, and I chose this one for tests because I constantly use it because of the convenience of the interface and the bonus system, which completely loses its meaning with such price changes. Choose carefully and find the most convenient, and buy from Incognito mode or from your home/work computer.
Here are examples from the Reddit website that booking systems can be much cooler than in my example:
+ $180 for tickets to the Philippines
+$100 to the fan of "efpyachnoy"
+$500 for thinking while planning a trip to Rome
If you bought yourself a Mac, and not a half—cheap PC, then you are sweet. If you reserve with an iPhone, then you are sweet. If you live in the USA, another European country, then you are sweet. For example, the Orbitz website shows Apple users offers from a higher price group, i.e. the prices are the same for everyone, but in the same request, the Apple user receives higher-priced requests.
The advice here is simple — use proxies of poor or rational countries (like Germany), buy with Windows or Ubuntu.
Here is an example of issuance for a flight from New York to Reykjavik on the same dates there / back. The first search was performed using a proxy of the USA, the second — Germany. Prices speak for themselves even after converting Euros to dollars :)
When choosing tickets, many booking systems allow you to set both exact dates and ± 3 days. Choose floating dates and tickets often come out cheaper at the time of purchase. And book tickets in advance, much in advance — 3-6 months. This way, no system will be able to drag your behavior through its algorithms. See the prices constantly and buy from Incognito mode, or better yet from another computer.
If you have experience and advice on how not to fall for such tricks of ticket sellers, hotel rooms, car rentals and much more, then share it in the comments.
Photo: Shutterstock
