Booking.com Admits Manipulating Star Ratings to See If Customers Will Pay More

[Strategic Aviation]

Hotel Booking Site Admits Manipulating Star Ratings to See If Customers Will Pay More - View from the Wing

Booking.com admits listing the Hudson Hotel in New York more than once under slightly different names with different star ratings, to see whether customers bookings would be any different.

Although the hotel says the prices should have been the same, reports are that when listed as a four star property it was several dollars more expensive per night than when listed as a three star property. Booking.com may have charged some customers more even when they were listing the same hotel at a lower price.

Booking.com won’t say how many people this happened to, or how long they were running the test for.

 

[Strategic Aviation]

Also Club1Hotels.com (though not necessarily as part of a deliberate trial):-

One big tip when searching for hotels within Club1Hotels is that sometimes the website shows the same hotel multiple times under slightly different names and at different prices. I can’t quite explain that phenomenon, but it is still happening, so be sure you choose the best deal for that property.