Paid Placements Hit Travel Booking Sites

from the and-so-it-goes... dept

theodp writes "The WSJ reports that bias is increasingly creeping into reservations systems like Sabre and travel sites like Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz. Federal regulations prohibiting bias in central travel computer systems expired in August. Airlines are now free to pay to have more expensive flights with inconvenient connections listed ahead of their competitors, and the practice has spread to hotel room listings. In response to the new tactics, which also include listing hotels as sold out or unavailable when they aren't, some are crying foul - InterContinental plans to yank its inventory from Expedia and Hotels.com and Northwest Airlines refuses to let CheapTickets.com sell its flights." All this means it's only going to get more difficult for the average person to book their own vacation at the best rate.

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