Orbitz shows more expensive options to Mac users

By Zach C. Cohen, USA TODAY

If you're booking hotels on Orbitz using a Mac, you may be getting more than you bargained for.

Orbitz, an online travel booking site, shows Mac users more expensive rooms than those shown to PC users.

Based on calculations of spending habits from Mac and PC users, Orbitz found that Apple customers tend to spend 30% more than their Windows counterparts, according to the Wall Street Journal. Knowing that, Orbitz puts more expensive options higher up on the list.

Obviously Mac users aren't stuck with more expensive hotels. They can still rank the offers by price and get the same room availabilities as those who search on a PC.

Orbitz CEO Barney Harford wrote last month in USA TODAY about the site's methodology, saying that utilizing the difference between Macs and PCs is ultimately a service to the users:

"Every day consumers execute millions of searches on our websites around the world, and we have invested significantly in being able to log information about these searches to learn more about the travel planning preferences of Orbitz users. By analyzing variations in different user and session attributes, we can make more personalized recommendations to users conducting searches on our sites in the future."

Orbitz's rivals, Expedia and Priceline, told WSJ that they did not define user preferences based on the computer used.

Update at 12:23 p.m. ET: Orbitz Vice President of Corporate Affairs Chris Chiames reached out to Technology Live, saying that personalization of search results on Orbitz is based on a number of variables, including location, duration of stay and family size.