<story><title>De-Stressing Booking.com (2019)</title><url>https://www.alexcharlton.co/projects/booking-com-de-stresser</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jvans</author><text>This is why I sometimes hate a&amp;#x2F;b testing. I&amp;#x27;m sure someone at booking a&amp;#x2F;b tested these things and saw an increase in revenue. The thing that these tests don&amp;#x27;t measure are very long term effects where people either start to hate your product and look for alternatives, or become so numb to the changes that the initial novelty effect wears off. The person who ran the test gets a promotion for increasing revenue during the quarter but the net result is a massive negative for the longevity of the product.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>shswkna</author><text>I have a personal experience where booking.com’s nudging caused me to reconsider my trip. I was trying to find something suitable to stay in Paris. Maybe it was the exaggeration of booking.com or maybe there was some truth, but at some point I shut down and made a 180 on my plans. I had realised that I don’t want to go somewhere where I have to compete against this avalanche of other visitors who were or were not snapping my accommodation options away. I am now visiting friends in another European city.</text></comment>
<story><title>De-Stressing Booking.com (2019)</title><url>https://www.alexcharlton.co/projects/booking-com-de-stresser</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jvans</author><text>This is why I sometimes hate a&amp;#x2F;b testing. I&amp;#x27;m sure someone at booking a&amp;#x2F;b tested these things and saw an increase in revenue. The thing that these tests don&amp;#x27;t measure are very long term effects where people either start to hate your product and look for alternatives, or become so numb to the changes that the initial novelty effect wears off. The person who ran the test gets a promotion for increasing revenue during the quarter but the net result is a massive negative for the longevity of the product.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>wpietri</author><text>That is not a problem with A&amp;#x2F;B testing. It&amp;#x27;s a problem with the values of the company. I&amp;#x27;ve worked with people who will say, &amp;quot;Oh, this tests well, but we don&amp;#x27;t want to do it because of [long term concerns X and Y].&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;People who value revenue metrics over all else will still do shitty things for users even if they don&amp;#x27;t A&amp;#x2F;B test.</text></comment>