Orbitz toying with showing different deals on Macs vs. PC users
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SEATTLE -- Do you use a Mac or PC when shopping online for travel? What you see may depend on what you use if you're on Orbitz.
The travel website admits its hotel suggestions are sometimes different depending on which computer you're using.
The Wall Street Journal reports if you're using a Mac, Orbitz may recommend hotels which cost $20-$30 more per night than those they suggest if you're on a PC.
So what can your choice of computer say about you? The average Mac desktop costs almost three times as much as its Microsoft Windows counterpart, and Mac owners tend to have higher household incomes -- $98,000 a year compared to just $74,000 for a PC.
Even on the go, iPhone and iPad users are shelling out 17% more in mobile purchases than everybody else.
But the CEO of Orbitz says, hold on:
"There's no way that we're treating Mac or PC users any different," said Barney Harford. "We love them both."
So we did our own test.
Using both a Mac and PC, we let Orbitz suggest hotels over Labor Day weekend in Las Vegas. Both computers showed the same exact hotel lists for best recommended value.
We tried hotels for San Francisco and Los Angeles too, and both the Mac and PC came up with the same recommendations.
Orbitz says they are only testing the idea of different recommendations for Mac users. Orbitz says the room prices are exactly the same for Mac and PC users. It says this is just an "experiment" and may not be available to everyone visiting the website.
"Mac users are 40 percent more likely to book four or five star hotels than PC users," Harford said. "And that lines up with the fact that Mac users are typically more willing to spend money on higher-end computers."
But this shows, sophisticated websites like Orbtiz are getting real good at knowing more about you as soon as hit their website.
The travel website admits its hotel suggestions are sometimes different depending on which computer you're using.
The Wall Street Journal reports if you're using a Mac, Orbitz may recommend hotels which cost $20-$30 more per night than those they suggest if you're on a PC.
So what can your choice of computer say about you? The average Mac desktop costs almost three times as much as its Microsoft Windows counterpart, and Mac owners tend to have higher household incomes -- $98,000 a year compared to just $74,000 for a PC.
Even on the go, iPhone and iPad users are shelling out 17% more in mobile purchases than everybody else.
But the CEO of Orbitz says, hold on:
"There's no way that we're treating Mac or PC users any different," said Barney Harford. "We love them both."
So we did our own test.
Using both a Mac and PC, we let Orbitz suggest hotels over Labor Day weekend in Las Vegas. Both computers showed the same exact hotel lists for best recommended value.
We tried hotels for San Francisco and Los Angeles too, and both the Mac and PC came up with the same recommendations.
Orbitz says they are only testing the idea of different recommendations for Mac users. Orbitz says the room prices are exactly the same for Mac and PC users. It says this is just an "experiment" and may not be available to everyone visiting the website.
"Mac users are 40 percent more likely to book four or five star hotels than PC users," Harford said. "And that lines up with the fact that Mac users are typically more willing to spend money on higher-end computers."
But this shows, sophisticated websites like Orbtiz are getting real good at knowing more about you as soon as hit their website.
