You may have heard that you can save some serious dough by using the “Incognito” mode in your browser when performing searches for the best hotel rates. Well, you might want to get to know a little more about a few key concepts associated with incognito browsing, so let’s do it. Let’s take a closer look at:
- What are cookies?
- How can cookies make me pay more when shopping for the best hotel rates?
- What is incognito browsing?
Cookies are chunks of information, personal information that visited websites can capture and use to set price points on individual bases. You see, each time you visit a hotel booking website, the site recognizes if you have been there before – because of the cookies it keeps in its memory base. When it “sees” that you have visited before, and performed a given search, and you are performing the same or very similar search again, then the prices are raised, just for you.
For instance, you visit a hotel booking website (such as Accor), or the home website of a hotel to do the booking there, by using the page, you automatically accept its cookies policy. As you surf, certain demographics are captured, like if you happen to live in an affluent geographical area. If you do, then those cookies will be used against you in subsequent visits. You think you’re going to check if the prices may have dropped within the last few days, or weeks, or even months, and the website remembers. And it raises the pricing when you visit. The more you visit and search, the higher the prices go. They do this is an attempt to make you feel urgency to purchase – before the rates go through the roof!
Cookies keep as much info as they can gather. And whether you are aware of it or not, you give the websites your explicit permission to keep these cookies, every time you surf the sites. In the Terms and Conditions for each website, you will find their individual site policies concerning cookies. They will tell you how long a cookie stays in effect, what types of info it will collect, and more. You simply have to read that fine print that nobody cares to if you want the cookie specifics for given sites.
Using incognito browsing to save money on hotels (and more):
When you enter an incognito search page, there are no cookies recorded for it. This allows you to surf on a hotel booking (or any other) website and not be recognized. You are incognito! This way, the website perceives you as a first-time visitor. It blocks your history so the website can’t see that you’ve visited previously (in non-incognito mode). It also makes sure that, when you leave websites, any cookies that were attached are removed permanently from your computer.
It’s a simple thing to enter into incognito mode for browsing. Just go to the menu tab in your browser and select to open a new window, incognito. When your new window opens, you can be sure that you are not having the prices that are presented to you manipulated in any way. It’s simple, safe, fast and it can save you money when booking hotels, airline flights and much more. Get to know the powers of shopping incognito today!
References:
//topspottravel.com/incognito-mode-to-save-money/
//beforeitsnews.com/travel/2013/12/use-private-browsing-to-save-money-on-hotel-bookings-2459268.html
