Orbitz Worldwide Inc. has found that people who use Apple Inc.’s Mac computers spend as much as 30% more a night on hotels, so the online travel agency is starting to show them different, and sometimes costlier, travel options than Windows visitors see.
Orbitz is not attempting third degree price discrimination:
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.
But is it just a matter of time?
3 comments
Comments feed for this article
June 27, 2012 at 10:39 am
Expensive browsing « Marc Gawley
[…] Cheap Talk, from the WSJ: Orbitz Worldwide Inc. has found that people who use Apple Inc.’s Mac computers […]
June 27, 2012 at 10:46 am
foosion
They seem to be giving everyone the same choices, but ranking so that people first see hotels they are more likely to want. This is a lot different from price discrimination, in which you charge different amounts to different people.
If they started actual price discrimination, there would be even more publicity than this story and people would find ways around it. So, no, it’s not just a matter of time.
December 1, 2012 at 11:14 pm
Sachin
BTW , UNESCO described Periyar as the pheprot of the new age, the Socrates of South East Asia, father of social reform movement and arch enemy of ignorance, superstitions, meaningless customs and base manners Reply