Beware of Dynamic Pricing on Booking.com

Choc0 on 02/06/2022 - 23:56
Last edited 03/06/2022 - 00:42 by 1 other user

Found some accommodation (incognito window) using booking dot com, which turned out to be $675 for two nights. Happy with that, so I checked good ol' Cashrewards and Shopback, and as luck would have it, one of them (Cashrewards) had 12% back on booking dot com.

Clicked through from Cashrewards, price for the exact same room goes up to $770. Even with 12% cashback (after x days), you still lose.

Tried on mobile, same result. Being logged in (or not) made no difference. Different browser, same issue. Tried with Shopback - same result.

They have a giant welcome banner, with jacked pricing when they know you've been directed there from Cashrewards.

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Comments

  • kyle on 03/06/2022 - 00:26
    +1

    When i booked Europe with that site, pricing didn't change and was even 10% cheaper on mobile in addition to the genius discount.

  • capslock on 03/06/2022 - 05:01
    +1

    I booked a hotel in Queensland. Same price with or without cashback. Naturally I booked using 12% cashback.

  • Shadowsfury on 03/06/2022 - 08:09
    +2

    Good reminder that we just need to check all permutations to get the best deal

  • markathome on 03/06/2022 - 08:09
    +1

    You always need to be aware of this but Booking.com hasn't been a terrible offender. Was the cheaper price a "Partner offer" by any chance? Because those are definitely removed when you click through by Cashrewards/Shopback.

  • samfisher5986 on 03/06/2022 - 08:38

    This is very common and won't only happen with shopback/cashrewards, it will happen with the long list of websites that direct you towards these website for a good deal, often they are coupon sites for example.

    This is because these websites are taking a commission and the downside is that if booking.com for example is already offering you a special price then they will put the price up because they will never go below a specific threshold for profit and they always pay the same amount to their "partners"

    • cameldownunder on 03/06/2022 - 09:09
      +2

      My trick: open the link, copy the destination URL minus all the reference stuff at the end of the URL, open incognito browser, paste.

  • scotty on 03/06/2022 - 09:07

    Discussions from last year.

  • Donaldhump on 03/06/2022 - 10:17

    i booked hotel in boston for $400, while ready to check in i searched again and it was $330, so i cancelled and rebooked.

  • orangetrain on 03/06/2022 - 11:05

    Wait until you try cashbacks with utilities! They made reamped look cheap.

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