Orbitz found Mac users on average spend $20 to $30 more a night on hotels
than their PC counterparts, a significant margin given the site's average
nightly hotel booking is around $100, chief scientist Wai Gen Yee said. Mac
users are 40% more likely to book a four- or five-star hotel than PC users, Mr.
Yee said, and when Mac and PC users book the same hotel, Mac users tend to stay
in more expensive rooms.
"We had the intuition, and we were able to confirm it based on the data,"
Orbitz Chief Technology Officer Roger Liew said.
The sort of targeting undertaken by Orbitz is likely to become more
commonplace as online retailers scramble to identify new ways in which people's
browsing data can be used to boost online sales. Orbitz lost $37 million in 2011
and its stock has fallen by more than 74% since its 2007 IPO.
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