Save hundreds on your holiday by changing this one setting when booking
British holidaymakers are being urged to make an important change to help save hundreds of pounds when booking a trip. According to experts, tracking software is helping travel companies predict where you're going to book and and are then upping the price as a result.
Ricardo Seixas, from One Day Agency, has told how travel companies now use AI-powered prediction tools that analyse past purchases, search history and social media activity to target customers with holiday ads that are more personalised than ever before.
He said: "What many don't realise is that cookies can track when someone is planning a holiday up to three months in advance. The algorithms pick up tiny digital breadcrumbs we leave online like increased searches for sun cream, flight prices, or swimwear."
However, Ricardo said they can even go one step further.
He added: "When you begin to search for specific flights or hotels on specific dates, you may notice that after some time, you'll need to refresh the searches and revisit the site, and when you do, suddenly the price has gone up.
"This is because of cookie tracking software, as well as more advanced AI software tools being able to detect consumer patterns and benefit the companies using them, by hiking the prices up once it detects that you're looking for a holiday at a specific destination or date.
The technology is similar to that of the dynamic pricing that caused outrage among Oasis fans who say the cost of tickets to their reunion tour skyrocket. Many other music lovers have had frustration with the scheme when getting concert tickets.
In recent years, holiday providers have put disclaimers on their sites, saying that prices may change at any time.
However, this change can happen quickly, from the first search you make, to the checkout, requiring you to refresh at the checkout point and be faced with a higher fee that you may feel committed to follow through with.
How to prevent automatic price hikes on holiday sites
The systems work by combining public data with private information users have allowed brands to access through their privacy settings, often without fully understanding what they've agreed to.
Ricardo added: "Most people tick consent boxes without reading them properly. They don't realise how much access they're giving to their personal information.
"However, it can be easy to avoid this targeted price hiking. When you go onto a new site, a pop-up will appear offering you cookie consent options.
"More often than not, many will just click accept, however, you should always click on 'Reject All' if that's available, or 'More Options' and turn off any possibility for targeted ads and cookie tracking.
I've already allowed cookies - what do I do now to avoid holiday price hikes?
If you have already allowed cookie tracking software from various sites, all you need to do is delete your cookies and the software.
You can do this by following these steps:
On your browser, find the History information and click on this
Find the option to Delete All Browsing Data
Ensure that you select Delete All Cookies
In three simple steps, you've removed these from your browsing session and you can try and look for the same trip, without accepting the cookies once again, and potentially find that your overall total has dropped by hundreds.
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