Don't Fall For Online Hotel Booking Trick, Says Consumer Advocate
BOSTON (CBS) - If you've ever booked a hotel room online, chances are you have seen the warnings that say there are only a few rooms left. Using booking.com, we found examples of this at a number of different Boston hotels.
But one consumer advocate we spoke to said don't fall for it.
"Most of the time this is manufactured scarcity. Don't be pressured into booking," said Kevin Brassler of Boston Consumer Checkbook.
According to Brassler, his staff spent weeks looking at offers and testing them. They found sites are often talking about very specialized rooms where there are only one or two in the hotel.
"Like a junior queen suite with mountain views, handicapped accessible and free breakfast," he said.
The team discovered that weeks after seeing these warnings, there were often plenty of similar rooms available at the same price. And, according to Brassler, unlike airline prices, hotel rooms often go down in price as you get closer to your travel date.
"Say 'There is only one left and if you don't act now the price will go up' is misleading and it's dishonest," he said.
WBZ-TV reached out to the parent company of Booking.com and several other sites and they said they are constantly improving the way they present their services online.