Those NOT So 'DIRTY TRICKS' [For Travel & Hotel Bookings]

 

The best time for our annual long-haul travels and holidays is NOT yet around the corner BUT for the meantime, as I was browsing for hotel bookings the past two days, I thought I should learn some lessons I did learn arising from my countless times WHERE I think I have spent quite a big chunk of time [e.g. for our Japan holidays last year], I spent the period from January to June and admittedly, as early as five months before our planned holidays, I kept blocking off bookings both for our hotel and flights [and cancelled those bookings WHEN a better option came into my endless searches]😁😁😁

BUT how many times you were browsing and then the online apps alerts you that a dozen other customers are NOW looking into that same hotel room you're looking at?  The implication there is a dozen customers also sitting at their computers OR devices about to click BUY and 'STEAL' that booking away from under you.  SERIOUSLY?  That trick is called "SOCIAL PROOF", that technique used in sales that leverages our desire for communal validation to push us to finally click that BOOK & BUY, pronto at that😓😓😓

BUT again, there's NO way to know IF there are actually dozens OR hundreds of people looking at exactly that same flight OR hotel booking you're glued at that moment.  Either way, it's there just to pressure you into clicking that BOOK & BUY button, locking you in.  BUT these deceptive practices DON'T end there.  There is a deceiving technique called 'DECEPTIVE SCARCITY' and that happened to me many times WHEN I was piecing together my holiday itinerary and then I get prompted that thare are only 2 SEATS LEFT.  SERIOUSLY?  That's quite a bad joke😡😡😡

You might reasonably assume that this means only 2 SEATS LEFT on that flight and you'll end up scrambling to find a different flight unless you decide immediately [OH YES, often that comes with a combined TIMER counting down the minutes that you can hold those tickets.  Combined with the constant fluctuation of the ticket OR rate pricings as the capacity and demand change, this can PUSH you to click BOOK & BUY even prematurely, ouch❎❎❎

Our takeaway:  Those 'TRICKs' DON'T end there.  Even 'CHECK-IN' fees get into the picture WHEN you would assume that if you want to check-in for your flight, OR have a printed boarding pass instead of a barcode displayed on your phone, that may be NO big deal BUT some airlines would charge you a fee.  And for some airlines, if you DON'T check-in early enough [at least 2 hours before your flight], there are FEES 'BURIED' deep in the fine print and FAQs.  So, next time you plan your holidays and travel, be aware of these so called 'TRICKS' dude💥💥💥