Manipulative Pricing Plagues Online Flight, Hotel Bookings In India: 7 Out Of 10 Users Complain

How often do you find messages such as "last 2 seats available" or "last 2 rooms at this price" while booking air tickets or hotel rooms on apps? Or have you experienced a price surge even as the booking is in the process?

Well, these are some of the issues encountered by people while booking flight tickets or hotel rooms online. As per a survey conducted by Local Circles, these are dark patterns adopted by travel portals to exploit consumers.

"One of the issues that consumers have frequently reported on the LocalCircles platform is change in air fares and hotel room tariffs within a few minutes while they are still searching their flights or hotels. Some consumers have defined it as almost as if fares and tariffs are changing based on the number of searches or their eagerness to book," the statement from the website said.

The first poll in the survey focused on this issue and asked consumers, "How often have you experienced with travel apps/ sites that the airfares/ hotel room tariffs have increased while you searched for it multiple times in a session?"

It received 11,001 responses, revealing that 73 per cent of respondents who use travel apps/sites have encountered frequent surges in airfares or hotel room tariffs after multiple searches. Another 20 per cent mentioned experiencing such surges "sometimes." A mere 5 per cent indicated rare occurrences of these surges, while 2 per cent chose the response "can't say." In short, nearly three out of four individuals using travel apps/sites have faced frequent fare/tariff surges within the same browsing session.

The press release says, "As in the case of special sales online, many other businesses use the tactics of pressurizing consumers stating that there is​ limited supply available or the sale is ending as soon as stocks are running out. The survey sought inputs from respondents about instances of false urgency. It asked, "How often have you experienced with travel apps/sites that a false sense of urgency (example: last 2 seats or 2 rooms available at this price) is created to get you to book faster?" This query received 11,071 responses with 74 per cent of travel apps/sites users surveyed indicating that they have faced situations of what appeared to be a false sense of urgency "frequently" and 16 per cent stating "sometimes".

In addition, 6 per cent indicated "never" and 4 per cent did not give a clear response. To sum up, 74 per cent of consumers surveyed who use travel apps/sites say they have frequently experienced being presented with a false sense of urgency to get them to book faster."

Whether it's travel reservations or hotel bookings, consumers find themselves unexpectedly presented with charges and additional options during the payment stage, significantly increasing the final cost of the ticket, which were not initially disclosed.

The survey asked respondents, "How often have you experienced with travel apps/sites that there are hidden charges (other than taxes) that are associated with flight ticket/hotel room bookings which are not presented upfront but only later when you are making the payment?"

Among the 11,579 consumers who responded to the query, 67 per cent reported experiencing hidden charges "very frequently," while 15 per cent encountered them "sometimes," and 4 per cent said it happened "rarely." Furthermore, 7 per cent of respondents claimed they had "never" faced such a trend when using travel apps/sites, while another 7 per cent refrained from providing a clear response, choosing "can't say."

In short, 67 per cent of surveyed consumers using travel apps/sites have frequently encountered undisclosed charges linked to flight tickets/hotel bookings, becoming apparent only at the final payment step. The data indicates that 82 per cent of those surveyed have observed this trend either frequently or occasionally.

The survey received -33,000 responses from participants situated in 323 districts across India. Of the respondents, 63 per cent were men, and 37 per cent were women. The distribution included 47 per cent from tier 1, 33 per cent from tier 2, and 20 per cent from tier 3, 4, and rural districts. Conducted through the LocalCircles platform, the survey engaged verified citizens who had to be registered with LocalCircles to partake in the survey.

Meanwhile, The government has categorized 13 types of dark patterns, encompassing elements such as false urgency, basket sneaking, confirm shaming, forced action, subscription trap, interface interference, bait and switch, drip pricing, disguised advertisement, nagging, trick questions, SaaS (software as a service) billing, and rogue malwares in its latest list.