More than a million Michiganders will be traveling during the Fourth of July holiday period. Many of them made hotel reservations online.
A Michigan State University professor says making online hotel reservations is an unsatisfactory experience for many people.
Professor Don Conlon compared customer satisfaction rates between people using two popular online hotel reservation services. In one, the customer sets the price for a room. In the other, the hotel sets the rate.
Conlon says people who set their own price were less satisfied with the experience.
He believes most American consumers would rather not have to haggle to make a purchase.
“I think, generally speaking, Americans really don’t get a lot of practice haggling,” says Conlon. “Whereas some people in other cultures…haggling is almost a way of life.”
The MSU study appears in the research journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
