Hotel booking sites overcharge Bay Area customers

Geolocation, VPNs, and Fingerprinting

• Many commenters discuss using VPNs, mobile data (esp. carrier CGNAT), and user‑agent spoofing to avoid location‑based pricing.
• Some expect booking platforms to further neutralize VPNs using fingerprinting and anti‑bot techniques, though others think it may not be worth it for “techie” edge cases.
• There is interest in tools that show prices from multiple locations and device profiles side‑by‑side; “antidetect” browsers already exist but are often used for fraud.

Third‑Party Booking Sites vs Direct Booking

• Strong recurring advice: use aggregators for search, then book directly with hotels/airlines for better service, easier changes, and loyalty points.
• Several report direct bookings now being cheaper or similar, reversing an earlier era when OTAs were often cheaper.
• Others say third‑party prices can still be significantly lower, especially in low‑occupancy or distressed markets.
• Experiences with booking.com and similar sites are mixed: some praise reliability and clarity, others describe botched reservations and painful customer support.
• Hotels often dislike OTAs due to commissions; some match OTA prices, others refuse or are contractually constrained.

Price Discrimination and Market Segmentation

• Many frame Bay Area up‑charges as classic price discrimination: charging more where willingness/ability to pay is higher.
• Comparisons are made to “country rates,” student discounts, hardback vs paperback books, and segmented product lines (e.g., chip binning, cookware branding).
• Some see most “product diversity” as disguised segmentation; others distinguish transparent product tiers from secret geo‑based pricing, which they find less palatable.

Regional and Device-Based Pricing Anecdotes

• Multiple anecdotes of “Australia tax” and other country‑based markups, sometimes so extreme that buying abroad plus travel was cheaper.
• Reports of higher prices on Macs or iPhones vs Windows/Android; some links to past coverage and recent ride‑hailing examples.
• Not all attempts to reproduce Bay Area markups succeed; methodology and inventory timing effects are noted as confounders.

Dynamic Pricing, Competition, and Ethics

• Several argue dynamic, individualized pricing is profit‑maximizing and will spread widely; others worry it extracts all consumer surplus (“zero dollars left over”).
• Ethical concerns include exploitation during disasters and of less tech‑savvy users; defenders liken it to progressive taxation or couponing.
• Debate over whether market forces alone can discipline such behavior; some call for regulation, others rely on reputation and competition.