Apple Mac owners better for business

Research shows owners of Apple computers, such as the MacBook Air, have higher incomes, which may explain why Orbitz has found Apple owners are more likely than their Windows counterparts to stump up for more expensive hotels. Photo: AFP

Apple customers have long paid a premium for the company’s computers and it now seems they may be willing to do the same for other products.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, online travel agent Orbitz Worldwide has found that Apple Mac users are willing to spend as much as 30 per cent more per night on hotel rooms that people who own a Windows PCs.

Says the WSJ: “Orbitz found Mac users on average spend $US20 to $US30 more a night on hotels than their PC counterparts, a significant margin given the site’s average nightly hotel booking is around $US100.”

Orbitz has also found Mac owners are 40 per cent more likely than Windows owners to book 4 or 5 star hotel rooms, leading the company to begin to pitch different and sometimes more expensive products to Apple computer owners.

There’s likely a simple reason why this is the case: Forrester Research estimates that US Mac owners have an average household income of $US98,560 per annum versus $US74,452 for Windows PC owners.

The WSJ has more on how Orbitz uncovered the data, which it first confirmed in October last year, as well as some examples of how it ran its own tests of Orbitz’s site to confirm that Apple users are served up different and more expensive options to Windows users.

Among them: “A Mac search for a hotel in Miami Beach for two nights in July displayed costlier boutique hotels on the first page of results, such as Sagamore, the Art Hotel and the Boulan South Beach, that weren’t displayed on the PC’s first page.”

It remains to be seen if this is a double-edged sword for Orbitz. Forbes in particular notes that Apple owners who get wind of the new policy at the travel site may ditch it for competitors such as Priceline and Expedia if getting the cheapest hotel room is their primary concern.

Orbitz’s PR firm Allison+Partners also responds to Forbes in the piece.

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