Clearing your cookies before booking a holiday can save you HUNDREDS with popular travel sites
One example showed an Expedia holiday for two to San Francisco coming down by £556 after browsing history was deleted
CLEARING your cookies before searching for a holiday could knock hundreds of the cost of a package.
A new investigation has tested big holiday firms like Expedia and Opodo by using one computer without a cleared search and one computer that was free from cookies.
has reported that using a computer which has lots of search history for holidays can push the price of a trip up, although both companies firmly deny this.
For example, they found that a search on Expedia for a hotel and flights from Manchester to San Francisco travelling between August 4 and 11 came up at £2,122 each before the cookies were cleared.
After the cookies had been cleared with the exact same destination and dates, the price dropped to £1,844 per person – a saving of £556 for two people.
Opodo also quoted a price for holiday for two to San Francisco from Manchester, flying August 11-18 as £1,215pp.
The same holiday with the cookies cleared came up as £1,173 each, a saving of £84.
The publication reports that a customer can make average savings of between three and four per cent when the computer’s cookies were cleared.
However there were some exceptions – one Expedia search on a family holiday between London and Florence actually came up in price by £250 once cookies had been cleared.
But a spokesperson for Expedia told us that they do not change prices based on information from cookies.
They said: "Like all pricing in the travel industry, pricing on Expedia is dynamic and can change frequently for a variety of reasons, including changes in supply and demand for a product – such as flights and hotels.
"Package prices can also vary based on the flights selected.
"Hotel price and availability parameters on Expedia.co.uk are set by the hotels who have the freedom to review their room demand and availability across their different distribution channels, and update the rates and availability they provide for display on Expedia.co.uk.
"Similarly, as airlines sell out of fares or load new fares then price changes can occur (both up and down).
"We do not use cookies to increase prices for returning visitors. We use our technology, our enormous amounts of data and work with our partners to help travellers find the best price from the pool of airfares or rooms available at that specific point in time."
A spokesperson for Opodo said: “Opodo categorically does not price any of its products based on previous user behaviour.
"Further, we dispute the search methodology used which showed a very large disparity between pricing, and believe that the researchers have compared two different packages in this instance.
“However, when searching for a trip on our platforms and, as a result of ongoing improvements and tests that we perform on our site, a customer may experience minor price fluctuations on different devices.
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They continued: "This is never based on an individual’s search history or the use of cookies, rather on a small, entirely randomised selection of customers being shown a subtly different version of site design or search functionality which can impact pricing.”
Find out more about whether you should accept or delete cookies here.
Sun Online previously looked into whether clearing the cookies on your browser can bring down the price of your flights.
Find Expedia discounts and offer codes with The Sun Vouchers.