While this next item is legal, it does feel wrong. A study was done for hotel reservations, and it found that if you lived in San Francisco, your hotel would be more than if you lived in Kansas City or Phoenix. This price discrimination presumably is because it is assumed that if you live in an area that costs more to live, that you’ll have more money to pay for the hotel. The comparison was rather specific, noting a nightly rate for a Manhattan hotel room at $500 more for San Francisco, than the test areas, for the same room and dates. They compared browser information, incognito mode, computer information, and other factors, but the origination of the booking was the key factor that changed things. The only way around appeared to be using a VPN that looked like it was coming from a less affluent city.
Popular hotel booking sites like Expedia and Hotels.com raise their prices substantially when San Franciscans use their online booking platforms.
Found at www.sfgate.com
