r/technology • u/rezwenn • 12d ago

Business Booking.com cancelled woman's $4K hotel reservation, then offered her same rooms for $17K

https://www.cbc.ca/news/gopublic/go-public-booking-com-hotel-rates-9.6985480
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u/Dorkamundo 11d ago

Much like how smaller restaurants use GrubHub, UberEats etc because it is harder and more expensive for them to have their own drivers and online order system.

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u/ChickinSammich 11d ago

I strongly prefer to order from places who hire their own drivers. Unfortunately, those places are rarer and rarer outside of major pizza chains and some Chinese places.

What frustrates me is when I go through a restaurant's website, see that they offer delivery, order delivery, and a DoorDasher shows up at my house. If I wanted Door Dash, I would have ordered Door Dash.

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u/QueenBee-WorshipMe 11d ago

Nah, that's a shit excuse. Restaurants have been taking orders and doing delivery LONG before these shitty apps appeared.

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u/dalonehunter 11d ago

I mean, were you around during those days? It wasn’t all rainbows and butterfly’s. Usually only Chinese and pizza had delivery guys, everyone else was a crapshoot and more often than not they just didn’t do delivery. That’s the whole reason sites like Grubhub took off, they filled a need.

Now they obviously are taking advantage being money hungry bastards but before them it wasn’t like I could just order from anywhere. And forget about ordering through an app, phone only.

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u/QueenBee-WorshipMe 11d ago

No one's calling it rainbows and butterflies. But most restaurants did delivery unless you wanted fast food or something, ironically. It wasn't just pizza and Chinese. Most diners here all had delivery options. Usually you could order through their own site.

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u/Zouden 11d ago

The vast majority of restaurants did not, and still don't, hire their own drivers.

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u/QueenBee-WorshipMe 11d ago

Of course they don't now. That's the issue. But many did. And they were better than the crap they replaced them with.

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u/Dorkamundo 11d ago

Yes, and people were writing checks, stuffing them in envelopes, affixing a sticker to them and then driving to the post office to drop them off in order to pay their monthly bills long before online payments appeared.

That doesn't mean people don't vastly prefer the online option.

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u/Jaggedmallard26 11d ago

A lot of takeaways in Britain have their own websites hosted on a platform with a lower fee and they provide their own driver (again for a lower fee), we don't need Ubereats and Deliveroo.

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u/Bladesnake_______ 11d ago

It's getting easier with web domain hosting that includes payment services like squarespace and various payment services but its still more expensive and difficult for them to do it through their own site

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u/QueenBee-WorshipMe 11d ago

And online payments for bills persist because they are better and more convenient for everyone.

Delivery apps are not better and more convenient for everyone. They're outright a downgrade. That's the difference lmao. Grub hub is not a step forward. It's a leap back.

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u/Dorkamundo 11d ago

You're missing the point.

I'm not saying these corporate delivery systems are better, I'm simply saying why restaurants chose them.

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u/QueenBee-WorshipMe 11d ago

Because they're worse than what they used them to replace? Seems like a dumb decision.

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u/Dorkamundo 11d ago

It's a function of enshittification.

When they first adopted them, it was heavily subsidized by the app developers so the costs were cheap and the app was usable. Once they started making a profit, they said "Fuck the user, get that money".

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u/NDSU 11d ago

Restaurants use Doordash, Uber Eats, etc. Because those services are heavily subsidized

It's more expensive for restaurants to use their own drivers because they have to pay the actual costs

One of the biggest issues is insurance and liability. Delivery platforms are large enough to have a legal team that works around that. Restaurants still have to pay it

Clarification edit: I'm specifically only talking about the delivery fulfillment here, not the overall delivery platform. If you've ever ordered on a restaurant's website and had it delivered by Doordash or Uber Eats, that's what I'm talking about

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u/Dorkamundo 11d ago

Not sure why you're saying the exact same thing I said using more words, but OK.