According to Orbitz Worldwide Inc., users of its online web travel booking service who use a Mac tend to choose the more expensive options when booking things. The data in the report shows that users of Mac computers can spend as much as 30% more a night on hotels.
This isn’t because Mac users have better taste or higher expectations though. According to Chief Scientist Wai Gen Yee, those who use a Mac are 40% more likely to book a higher rated hotel than PC users are, even mentioning that when booking in the same hotel, Mac users are likely to purchase the higher priced room. Based on data from Forrester Research, the average income for adult Mac users is about $25,000 more than that of PC owners. It’s more likely the fact that people with higher incomes tend to book more expensive hotels than those without (for obvious reasons) and they just happen to own Macs as well.
The study seems a bit vague but it should be noted that sometimes people tend to mix up correlation and causation in a situation like this. The data in Orbitz’ recent report seems to make sense but also happens to leave several questions up in the air. The one thing we do know is that only time will tell if Orbitz sees an increase in higher priced bookings or an increase in user-agent spoofing.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
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