"It's a tough choice, Kev". No, it's a stupid advert, Booking.com. Is there anyone for whom this advert would work?
I've just been to Venice, I'm currently staying in Falkirk, and I've just booked a room in Edinburgh. So why do Booking.com's algrorithms think there's any sense in sending me a personalised email trying to sell me rooms in Venice, Falkirk & Edinburgh? The place I've been, the place I'm in, and the place I'm already going to?
Do algorithms not have the plain common sense to work out their customers' patterns? I have stayed in hundreds of booking.com hotels. Rarely if ever do I stay in the same place twice in rapid succession. And I tick the box saying that these are business trips. Can an algorithm not be programmed to work out when a person goes to a variety of places for business, usually only the once?
Even if they were working on the "If you like that, you'll like this" principle, could they not find some common factors between destinations and plug that way? You went to Venice, maybe you'd like Berlin or Prague? Instead of, as they're currently doing, going "I see you took a city break to a european cultural hotspot, here's an idea, why not just go to the same place again?"
Booking.com buck your ideas up or sack whoever does your direct marketing. They are idiots.
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