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The travel website you're using says there's 'only 1 room left' — is that true? - NBC News
Despite warnings about low availability on hotel booking sites, researchers found there were plenty of rooms left.
Travel websites make it easy to comparison shop for hotel rooms. Just watch out for a common marketing trick designed to get you to book right away, rather than compare other options — bold warnings about limited inventory (“ONLY 1 ROOM LEFT!”) with your search results.
A study by Checkbook.org (an independent, nonprofit consumer organization) found that most of the well-known online travel sites display alerts about room shortages that typically did not exist. “Almost all these warnings about low availability, about scarcity of rooms, are completely misleading and dishonest; there’s usually still plenty of rooms left,” said Kevin Brasler, Checkbook’s executive editor. “It's just the way they're trying to get you to buy now and not think about it too much.”
Over the course of several weeks, Checkbook’s researchers searched for hotel stays in major U.S. cities on eight different online travel agencies. The searches were repeated three times over three weeks.
Despite warnings about low availability on hotel booking sites, researchers found there were plenty of rooms left.
Travel websites make it easy to comparison shop for hotel rooms. Just watch out for a common marketing trick designed to get you to book right away, rather than compare other options — bold warnings about limited inventory (“ONLY 1 ROOM LEFT!”) with your search results.
A study by Checkbook.org (an independent, nonprofit consumer organization) found that most of the well-known online travel sites display alerts about room shortages that typically did not exist. “Almost all these warnings about low availability, about scarcity of rooms, are completely misleading and dishonest; there’s usually still plenty of rooms left,” said Kevin Brasler, Checkbook’s executive editor. “It's just the way they're trying to get you to buy now and not think about it too much.”
Over the course of several weeks, Checkbook’s researchers searched for hotel stays in major U.S. cities on eight different online travel agencies. The searches were repeated three times over three weeks.