Press the bright yellow check prices button on TripAdvisor at your peril. Suddenly your screen is bl

August 25, 2012 Travel News Contribute your own travel stories, personal experiences and knowledge! Click here to write your impressions, recommendations pre purchase cheap airline tickets athens amsterdam and reviews of destinations, hotels, restaurants, monuments, attractions.
Press the bright yellow check prices button on TripAdvisor at your peril. Suddenly your screen pre purchase cheap airline tickets athens amsterdam is blasted with hotel booking websites jockeying for your attention, all promising best price guaranteed or we match the price or your first night is free . But the result of this competitive hubbub? Nearly every site appears to offer the same price and you end up wondering why you should bother trawling through so many pop-ups.
But, maybe, it s not that surprising that the price choice offered on TripAdvisor, the world s biggest hotel review site, can seem so limited. When the competing results flash up from Hotels.com, Expedia.co.uk and Venere.com, they are within a few pence of each other because … well, the company that owns TripAdvisor also owns Hotels.com, Expedia and Venere. So it s virtually pointless obtaining separate quotes.
To be fair, TripAdvisor s check prices button doesn t take you purely to its sister sites. For instance, pre purchase cheap airline tickets athens amsterdam it nearly always shows offers by Booking.com, the biggest hotel reservation site and deadly competitor to Expedia.
There is no suggestion of active collusion between the competing websites to offer near identical prices. That would be illegal. But behind pre purchase cheap airline tickets athens amsterdam the lookalike prices is a practice that has become standard in the industry – rate parity . The big sites pressurise hotels to offer the same price, letting them advertise as the cheapest – and prevent smaller competitors from undercutting.
pre purchase cheap airline tickets athens amsterdam This week the issue hit the US courts with Expedia, Booking.com plus numerous other sites and big hotel chains (such as Hilton and IHG, owners of Holiday Inn) accused of conspiring to fix prices. Travel sites created the illusion consumers could seek out the best deals, Steve Berman, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told Reuters . The reality is that these illegal price-parity agreements mean consumers see nothing but cosmetic differences and the same prices on every site.
The major booking sites and hotel groups vigorously contest both the US lawsuit and the OFT action, and argue rate parity is not anti-competitve. But if the OFT rules against them, the fines could be potentially up to 10% of their turnover.
The lesson? Buying over the internet doesn t automatically mean you ll obtain the best price. And from my own – admittedly limited – research, always try the hotel s own website first. I m off to Croatia ( pictured ) in September. The hotel I m considering was quoted at £464.50 on Booking.com, £463.05 on Expedia, £463.00 on Hotels.com, £463.55 on Venere – and £359 on its own site.
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