[masraum]

Originally Posted by rockfan4

Earlier, I was attempting to book a hotel room so that we can visit the granddaughter for her birthday. The hotel's website was acting up and I was unable to reserve a room, but at one point a price came up less than what I normally get. So last night, I tried again, their website was acting normally. I copied the url and opened it in a private window. In private windows, the browser can't read your existing cookies. The lesser rate came up again. "Holiday rate" it said, even though we aren't booking until mid January. I was able to book the room at the lesser rate. I tried again for a second stay, we're going to Chicago in February, but it didn't work. Maybe the hidden promotion only lasted until the end of January. But, in the future, I'm going to book in a private window just to see what happens.

Many sites/services will do that. Years ago, I was trying to book a flight to visit my mom. I was trying all different days and times to find the best rate. I must have searched 10 times. Most of my searches were coming up with the cost @ ~ $200 round trip. After several searches, the price almost doubled. Continental realized "this guy is shopping, he's almost definitely going to travel. We'll gouge him."
You can do the same thing, and then delete the cookies and the price will go back to normal.
I am not surprised that other vendors are doing the same thing these days.
I think Amazon does something similar, but I don't think clearing cookies helps, and sometimes the price changes are <$1 (which adds up if you have millions or billions of purchases).