Earlier today, we noticed a large amount of activity on Twitter linking to a blog post entitled The Cleartrip Hurry Algorithm. The writer of the post was confused by one of our recently launched features and felt we were engaging in “fake scarcity tactics” by employing some sort of ‘algorithm’ to trick users into feeling a sense of urgency.
We’d like to take the opportunity to explain and to improve.
How often have you shortlisted a particular flight (at a particular price point), and then seen the price change when you came back to book, even if it’s just a few minutes or a few hours later?
Airline pricing is based on ‘fare classes’ or ‘buckets’. Buckets typically work like this:
- Each bucket is allocated a fixed number of seats.
- Each bucket is associated with exactly one price point.
- When there are no more seats available in a bucket, prices from the next highest bucket are displayed and so on.
To help our users make faster and better decisions, we launched a feature last week to show our users when there are very few seats left in a bucket (i.e. a specific price point). The feature is not an algorithm — it only shows users a simple count of the number of ‘seats remaining’ at a specific price point for a specific flight departure.
For instance, let’s take a single person search for a flight from Bangalore to Srinagar on 26th January. The available price for a specific Kingfisher flight is Rs. 14,839. As there is only a single seat available at that price point, we display a “1 SEAT LEFT” indicator under the price.
There is only a single seat left at a price point of Rs. 14,839. This does not mean that there is only one seat left on the flight, it means there is only one seat left at that specific price.
When we repeat the same exact search for two travellers instead of one, the total price for the same exact Kingfisher flight is Rs. 33,240 or Rs.16,620 per person. The price per person increases by Rs. 1,781 (almost 12%) because there aren’t two seats available at the Rs. 14,839 price.
For three travellers, it gets even more interesting — the total price goes to Rs. 58,259, or Rs.19,419 per person. The per person price is now higher by Rs. 4,580 for the same seat.
| Price | Number of seats available |
| Rs. 14,839 | 1 |
| Rs. 16,620 | 2 |
| Rs. 19,419 | 3 |
We hope this post explains our current implementation of the feature. We will also be taking a hard look at how we can improve and make the feature clearer since it seems to be confusing some users and causing a storm in a social media teacup.
The explanation looks half baked, at least to me. At least the notifications being denoted on the website “1 seat left”, “2 seats left” and so on, are definitely misleading.
The service or the feature introduced by the website might be good, but its definitely going to be difficult to trust Cleartrip again, anytime soon.I wish your website all the luck for future endeavors though.
Lets hope your team is professional enough to update this comment and not delete/ edit it.
@Manish — Thank you for your candid comment. Whether you choose to trust us or not is up to you.
As you can see from the screenshots above or the screenshots in the original blog post, the prices are different and not a multiple of the price shown when there was only 1 seat left. That much is clear as day. It’s actually strange that the post’s author never noticed that prices were different across his searches for different flights.
Are there any specific parts of the explanation above that we can further clarify for you? If you could help us understand why you think the explanation is “half baked”, we can try and improve the explanation.
Hi Hrush, thanks for the explanation. How do I display tooltips on my ipad? Or do you not recommend using your site through a touch interface if one wishes to see hidden content?
Joe — that’s a very valid comment, one we will factor into our thinking as we try to improve the usability of this feature.
> we launched a feature last week to show our users when there are very few seats left in a bucket
But the text on your site doesn’t say “x seats left at this price”. It just says “x seats left”. You do realize there is a difference in the two, right?
Having to hover over the text (which doesn’t look “hoverable”), to reveal crucial clarification on the meaning of the text, which doesn’t seem to need any clarification in the first place, makes you look shady at best.
> The writer of the post was confused by one of our recently launched features
No, he wasn’t “confused”. He spoke of exactly what you said on the site – that there are “x seats left”. If the site says there are “x seats left”, that either means there are x seats left, or that you are lying. There’s no confusion. He rightly believed that you are lying.
Hiding information is lying.
The problem is with the text on the site. It’s misleading. The right thing to do is to own up, fix it and apologize. Don’t call other people “confused”.
“Just because you have one, doesn’t mean you have to be one.”
Just use ” 1 seat left – at current price point “
@Aritra @Anonymous — We agree that we need to work on improving the design of the feature and we will be doing just that. “X seats left at this price” is a better label, but may be too long to fit for the way it is currently designed, so we will need to think about how we can best convey the information better.
@Anonymous — The writer of the post completely neglected to mention that the prices he was seeing for different searches were different price points, not the same price being multiplied by the additional number of travellers. Would you call that a lie of omission as well?
Perhaps its just about the ‘self’ set bar on how clear and transparent things should be. You guys have done a good job so far and people seem to be reacting to even the slightest diversion from that track.
All said and done, that’s a neat response!
Why not just have a “lowest available price” in green instead of the confusing and alarming “1 seat left”, “2 seats left”, etc…
This instills trust in the user that you are on their “side” getting them the lowest possible price. Instead of making them uncomfortable and confused that they have to hurry and make a rash decision.
I think most people understand that prices for flights change all the time. So there is no need to induce fear into them.
@Corey — Thanks for the suggestion. We agree we need to re-examine the way the label is worded so that it’s clearer and we will be doing just that.
@Anshum — we have “self-set” a bar on transparency, because we believe in being as upfront and honest with our users as we can. We were the first travel company to launch with WYSIWYG pricing for all our products — flights, hotels and trains. We will continue to be as transparent as we can and will be looking at how to improve this feature so that it is clear instead of being confusing.
Hi Hrush
I don disagree with you, but there is something really spooky. So according to your explanation to the blog. How was it so that when the user asked for 1 ticket only one ticket was left in the lowest bucket .When the user asked for 2 tickets then the second bucket had again only 2 tickets left, and surprisingly 3rd time again when user asked for 4 tickets again the system had only 4 tickets left for that bucket.
This might be coincidence but definitely raises some doubt on the system and intentions.
No, I wouldn’t call that a lie. It’s an oversight. At least he didn’t conceal that information. It was plainly visible, allowing you to make this argument.
In any case, it doesn’t matter what we’d call the author. It’s irrelevant, when what we are discussing the messaging on your site.
I appreciate that you see the flaw in the messaging and are looking to fix it. Cheers.
@Anonymous — Sure, the information hasn’t been concealed, but it is up to the readers to do their own math. Once anyone does the math, the conclusions drawn by the post and the premise of the post are shown to be weak or incorrect, depending on your opinion.
@Kaustubh — unfortunately, that is just coincidence. It is very hard for us to point to a specific search result and show that the feature sometimes shows you more seats left than the number of travellers searched for as the seats and prices change extremely dynamically. Try 5 different searches for one traveller only and maybe you’ll be able to see it for yourself.
I hate to put this burden on you, but because of the highly dynamic nature of seats and pricing, any links I put here myself will become ‘stale’ extremely quickly.
Wonder how it would work if the demand was lower than supply and the flight has not been cancelled
Hrush
I applaud your decision and initiative to do the firefighting. However you will need to remember that the social media audience will be more demanding than others who handle situations much more meekly.
While Manas (in the original blog post) did not do the maths explicitly because he was pissed off with the strange coincidence (highlighted by the incompletely labelled warning of seats left), do you also think that a strange coincidence is causing only enough seats left at the current price point? This happened with you and this happened with Manas.
I am also wondering about this – why not book a seat at the lower price and 2 at the new price-point (in the higher bucket)? This helps the customer more and you make the same commission I assume.
However as a developer, I know how an assumption by the development team can cause a situation which everyone in the wold does not agree to. IMHO, you really need to own up more than you are doing and turn the PR fiasco to your advantage. (Sorry about the unsolicited advice).
Arun
wow, really think this is much ado about “not much”. Sure, the label needs to be rethought and obviously the original post was without malice.
I think its time to move on.
Pranav
Well done Hrush by going proative and clarifying the cofusion!
http://otatimes.com/the-cleartrip-hurry-algorithm/
Thanks for the explanation, and clarifying the confusion. There is much to learn for internet and ecommerce companies from your transparency.
Hrush, there are 2 situations to be handled in this case:
1) for customers who want to book at a certain lower fare. It will affect them when prices increase => Creating an urgency to indicate price increase in the offing
2) for customers who want to book a specific flight. It will affect them when there are no more seats available in that flight => Creating an urgency to indicate low availability
So the messaging should handle these 2 situations differently – if seats are available at a higher fare class, you can say “Price is increasing” for the fare class currently shown which has less number of seats. If no seats are available at higher fare classes (or the fare currently shown is the final available fare class), then the phrase “x seats left” makes sense
Just a small suggestion
- Anu
If the user searches for one ticket then the price is: 14839
If the user searches for two ticket then the price is: 16620 for both the tickets.
What happened to the single ticket priced: 14839.
When I book two tickets together, why it should not be 14839 for first ticket and 16620 one ticket , as it said one ticket is left at 14839.
Please clarify me!
Like! Love the fact they responded and are engaging …
Mobocube might have simply misunderstood. But the allegation he make “fake scarcity tactics” -at least towards Cleartrip- seems unjust, and might well be perceived as a doubtful effort to promote competition. This may not be his intention, but that’s how it seems. He may spare an apology.
And Cleartrip might be clearer in providing “X seats left at this price level” information. You should spare an apology as well, no matter what. The customer is always right, even if they are not. A simple apology before the explanation might have done the trick.
When you do the math, it’s simply clear that per ticket prices are going up. But what misled Mobocube, and you left out to explain, was that the number of persons in the query matching the number of seats left at a certain price. 1, 2, 4… That’s kinda dubious.
Hrush, is this really a coincidence or could there really be an artificial scarcity algorithm, that makes people hurry and also arranges the buckets & prices to maximize profitability based on search queries? Not on your side, but on your your supplier’s side, be it the airline or the travel broker, travel software platform whatever…Who is filling those buckets?
Are the buckets of equal size? Would a hidden algorithm hand larger or smaller buckets for different party sizes queried? Are airline pricing methods are audited or regulated by the FAA? I’ll look into it but I don’t think so… Just because they provide dynamic pricing and show the number of seats left, doesn’t mean that the airlines are transparent and they are telling the truth.
Cem Argun.-
Pingback: The Confusion Around “The Cleartrip Hurry Algorithm” | Indian Media Magazine - Media, Television, Movie and Celebrity News
Hi,
It is pretty clear that “X Seats Left” is a misrepresentation of facts even if the true picture gets clearer with a hover. The purpose of the hover could be to present additional explanatory information, for instance the concept of price bucketing that you have mentioned in your post. Right now its a bit like someone putting a sticker on a chicken burger that reads “No Meat” , and on removing that sticker one finds “In the Bun”.
This reminds me of an earlier time when Cleartrip used to keep the default selection for travel insurance as ON, which meant that unsuspecting users would be charged for insurance on their tickets.
Unfortunately, these two instances reduce the trustworthiness of cleartrip in my mind, though i will continue to use the site, probably with greater attention on the fine print.
The confusing part that not yet addressed by Hrush is:
For 1 person – only 1 seat left
For 2 person – only 2 seats left
For 4 person – only 4 seats left
How is that possible if seats are divided into buckets of fixed prices (as questioned by @kaustubh priye)?
Below can be a possible explanation (Disclaimer: I am not a travel industry expert.)
Consider a hypothetical flight with 20 seats. 10 seats are allocated to a low price bucket at Rs. 10,000 per ticket and the remaining 10 seats to a high price bucket at Rs.20,000 per ticket.
When I am going to book a ticket, consider, 9 tickets got already sold (from the low price bucket). So, I have 1 seat left in low price bucket and 10 seats left in high price bucket.
So, the total cost will be as below depending on the number of seats I book:
1 seat – 10,000 (Avg.Price per ticket = Rs.10,000)
2 seats – 10,000 + 20,000 = 30,000 (Avg.Price per ticket = Rs.15,000)
3 seats – 10,000 + 40,000 = 50,000 (Avg.Price per ticket = Rs.25,000)
4 seats – 10,000 + 60,000 = 70,000 (Avg.Price per ticket = Rs.35,000)
So, just because there is 1 seat left in the low price bucket, the average price will keep on increase for every additonal seat you book. If, all the tickets were booked from the same bucket, the average price would have remained the same.
In this hypothetical case, if I was booking a ticket after all those 10 tickets from low price bucket were sold off, I would have seen ’10 tickets left’ for any number of seats I try to book.
Sorry, please read the average prices in above example as below:
1 seat – 10,000 (Avg.Price per ticket = Rs.10,000)
2 seats – 10,000 + 20,000 = 30,000 (Avg.Price per ticket = Rs.15,000)
3 seats – 10,000 + 40,000 = 50,000 (Avg.Price per ticket = Rs.16,667)
4 seats – 10,000 + 60,000 = 70,000 (Avg.Price per ticket = Rs.17,500)
Pingback: PR lessons from The Cleartrip Hurry Algorithm incident | Beast Of Traal.com
While trying two seats, why can’t you sell one seat from lower bucket and other from higher? Do you have to sell both from same buckets?
Hi
call center unit: 18602339000
tele booking executive: Mr chandan
1) He clearly mentioned he blocked the tickets for 12th feb and 14 feb, 2012 BOM to MAA tickets.
2) He didn’t send a person to collect funds
3) While calling multiple times on customer care, he is not coming over the phone
4) Now i am amazed come to know that tickets are not blocked?
This is what Cleartrip stands for….
Cleverly wipe out your tickets……Clear clear clear trip
Best of luck fooling people
Enable your blog with facebook comments… We are in 2012 guys.. if you are going to build a blog, build it right
@Santosh We have received your complaint on the escalations desk and the has been addressed on 31st Jan.
For any more service related queries, please write to us on customersupport@cleartrip.com or call us on 1860 233 9000 (24 X 7)