"Cookies" on Hotel Booking Web Sites

Whenever I reserve a room at a Starwood hotel I only get more expensive options--instead of lower prices, I get the "best" rates on bigger rooms. What gives?

–David, Santa Barbara, Calif.

Unless you've got a “rich”-sounding voice, we're assuming you're talking about what happens when you try to book online.

Welcome to the wonderful world of cookies and “customer management.” There are two possible options. One is that you’ve got some cookies (basically, these are tiny programs which hide in your Web browser and tell a Web site what you’ve been up to). If you’ve selected higher-priced options in previous sessions on the site, the cookies may tell Starwood’s site that you’re a high-roller and may show you only upscale options. To fix it, you’ll just need to clear the cookies from your browser.

For Internet Explorer, select Internet Options under the Tools menu. Then choose Delete under Browsing History. For Safari browsers, select Reset Safari from the Safari menu. In Firefox, select Clear Private Data under the Tools menu.

The more likely explanation, since cookies usually expire after a few days or weeks, is that Starwood is using your customer information (the Starwood Preferred Guests account, probably) to “manage” your “customer experience.” Are you logging on to the site using your SPG account?

If so, you may be flagged as a big spender in the Starwood system itself. From a service perspective, this is a good thing. It means you’ll be in line for upgrades, and the service staff is more likely to hop to it whenever you ask. From a cost perspective, though, as you’ve discovered, this is not a good thing.

Next time, don’t log into the site. Search out the hotel you want, with the prices you want, and then begin the reservation process. When you get to the reservations section, you’ll be prompted to enter your Starwood code. You can do that at this time and still earn points, but it will be too late for the system to try and hide good values from you.