So we took a family vacation recently and we had to drive halfway across America and what creeped me the fuck out was how we were getting such different prices on different phones while looking at the same hotel room on Priceline. For example I would look for a hotel in Chicago and find a room for a $180, then my cousin is also looking for a room on his phone and I look over and the same hotel room is $50-$70 cheaper. This kept on happening in every city we went to, like there was such a huge fluctuation between the prices one person would get on their phone and what someone else was getting. We noticed that the people with higher end Samsung phones were getting a much lower rate than those with cheaper phones. Have you ever experienced such price discrimination and is there really anyway to protect yourself from it? And do you think it’s ethical for companies to charge different rates for the same product? Should there be some legislation to protect consumers from this seeing as how AI is just going to make it easier for companies to price gouge consumers to the max.
Feels like I’ve heard of this happening before. Curious what others chime in about it. I haven’t experienced it myself but I don’t travel much these days.
This has been going on forever. Decades ago, it was common to be charged more on travel websites if you were using a Mac then if you were using windows. These days they use a lot more profiling to try to squeeze more money out of the people they think are willing to pay.
I priced airbnbs in Oaxaca then hopped on to a VPN exiting in Brazil and got better prices. Then the next time I tried that I didn’t get different pricing.
I remember the days when airbnbs were a cheaper option to hotels, now their service fees have just ruined the site.
I think new amateur speculators have driven up prices too. Honestly I don’t fault Mexicans for charging Americans more. It just made me decide I don’t need to be a gentrifier. I can stay in the US.