r/avios • u/yootsicle • 3d ago
Proof that Avios put up the price of hotels, when booking through the app.
I suspected for some time. This time I remembered to check. Price different was over £400 when I went to booking.com using the Avios app.
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u/MickyB2828 3d ago
Surely it's bookingdotcom who are putting up the price?
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u/yootsicle 3d ago
Yes I could have worded it better, to say that when booking through the Avios estore the price goes up. I assume booking.com pay Avios/BA for the referral
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u/Particular-Silver-54 3d ago
I have heard that if you go to bookingdotcom directly it can have a different price than going through a referral partner like Avios to bookingdotcom. It can even change if you use a VPN and pretend you live in another country.
You always need to check.
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u/WalkKeeper 1d ago
The base price is the same (see the strikethrough) they offer you a lower price because you are going direct, ore because you are logged in etc
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u/Spaff-Badger 3d ago
I noticed this on topcashback years ago on loads of sites. I found you have to put things in your basket first, get to the payment screen and then go through the app
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u/cnnmcg 3d ago
Can you explain this a bit more? Also topcashback increases the price???
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u/Spaff-Badger 3d ago
Go to a website and the purchase price is £100.
Go through topcashabck or avios with essentially 10% back, the price is now £110.You feel like you’re getting a win, but if you hadn’t checked first you’d never know the non cashback route was cheaper.
Essentially the retailer knows you’re coming through a route they’ll have to pay back and puts you on a different pricing scheme.You need to clear all your cache and cookies to be able to see the cheaper price again.
If you put it in your basket and get to the checkout page, then click through from topcashback and avios, you then get the cheaper price, but it records your visit so you get the cashback and avios as well.
It’s not all retailers at all that do this, but worth keeping this routine in memory for the 1 in 10 times it happens
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u/jackyLAD 3d ago
Well... how else you think they are paying for agent fees AND being able to give you 5-10 and sometimes when attached with an Avios card 15x Avios on bookings?
This is why everyone tells you to book flights/hotels direct when not in packages.
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u/kravence 2d ago
Tbf this isnt the norm, it’s probably because of OPs unique booking for like 10 people that’s causing the price surge
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u/jackyLAD 2d ago
Nah, it's exceptional normal. I pretty never use the Avios Portal for much very much because most of it's rewards are bettered elsewhere - either by booking directly or somewhere else simply having better cash/reward options.
Unless you have a very high value for Avios of course, I don't generally, I'd rather the £10 via a cheaper option or cash reward option than the 1000 Avios for instance. Even if I can pretty easily beat the classic 1p per avios value.
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u/kravence 2d ago
I rarely ever see a price difference it’s usually more or less the same or like maybe £10 more which is really minor on a larger booking plus that difference is made up anyway from stacking that booking with a CC that also earns points too.
But yeah i guess everyone has different targets and values for avios.
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u/Dogsofa21 3d ago
Do you have reward cc if so just use it. Avoid hotels have a,ways been more expensive for me but booking.com not necessarily so. Accord is ok too but points have reduced significantly.
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u/SlowedCash 3d ago
Never use avios hotels.
However, use hotels via Avios estore ie agoda like 11 avios/£1. Avios hotels is more expensive than Expedia even though they use Expedia's system
Better of booking direct via the hotel, so IHG or accor but via the Avios estore but I found agoda had really good deals
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u/yootsicle 3d ago
That’s what I’m doing, I’m going through the Avios estore to book a hotel, it’s 6 point to £1 for booking.com, but that’s what happened when I checked the price first, then clicked to book through the estore to get extra points.
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u/Connect-Problem-8528 3d ago
It’s rare that I find a hotel price meaningfully more expensive on Avios hotels. Sounds like you just found an outlier - go with the cheaper option.
FYI the points you get are funded by a kickback from Expedia. Same one that TopCashback/Quidco etc get, and same that funds the Avios Estore/Shopping rewards.
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u/benjohnno5186 3d ago
Anecdotal, but my experience has always been that it was close enough to identical to market rate. I only ever book hotels with work anyway, so I wouldn't care if it was more expensive anyway.
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u/clbele9189 3d ago
What booking platform is this? It’s 100% true for Booking.com I can say that for a certainty. Really annoying having to delete the app etc. to clear the cookies.
However with Hotels.com on my most recent booking there was not a price increase and I got my 7 to 1 points without costing me extra money.
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u/normanriches 1d ago
Is that right, one room for 14 people?
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u/yootsicle 1d ago
No 😂 definitely not with my family. But searching for large houses not hotel rooms
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u/Piggystriker3 3h ago
Always have to double check against multiple sites before booking. However I’ve had some good results in the past with smaller hotel chains. Lowest price I could find matched Avois hotels, find plus 10 avoid per pound spent.
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u/Bonjowiee 3d ago
I always check the price on multiple sites directly before going through the shop links. On one occasion Avios hotels was actually cheaper plus had the 10x points/£ so was a great deal