Is this the most outrageous "The Australian Tax" ever?

jonno82 on 13/09/2014 - 11:08

While I'm searching for hotels for an upcoming trip to Auckland (wooohooo!) I have stumbled upon something really weird, thought I'll share that here for laughs

I've been comparing pricing on a few travel sites and generally the results were quite similar, as I'm a subscriber to newsletters of both expedia.com and expedia.com.au, I got a promotional email for "50% off selected hotels". The search result from the link was not that exciting with most hotels were slightly cheaper than what I have seen before, then I realized that the link took me to US version of expedia.com and all prices were USD. So I thought to myself pffft here's my time went for nothing, but the Rydges rate seemed to be cheap as I remember on expedia.com.au it was more expensive. Then I thought to myself hmmm lets compare the price between the Australian and US based websites and see if there are any differences, lo and behold, the results are here.

As you could see from the screenshot, by selecting identical dates, room type, booking preference, the Australian website will charge you NZD100+ more than the US website! Another "The Australia Tax"?

Just to be fair, I have done searches on Rydges Australia and Rydges NZ, both searches came up with same price (199 NZD per night, 885 NZD in total), and I have compared another hotel's price on expedia US and expedia AU and both prices were the same.

Not sure how this could have occurred but definitely an interesting tip for ozbargainers I suppose?

Travel

Comments

  • Ventak on 13/09/2014 - 11:13
    +3

    Australia Tax is literally everywhere. This isn't the worst example though (anyone remember when Adobe products could be bought cheaper by flying return ticket to the US and buying it there than just getting it here locally?).

    • twocsies on 15/09/2014 - 16:00
      +1

      There is no past tense involved. In terms of the $4K price tag, $150 is simply not much difference. It's only 3.6% cheaper to buy Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection from the Adobe Australia site than to buy a ticket, fly to the United States, buy the same collection, and fly back to Australia.

      Australia
      https://www.adobe.com/au/products/catalog/cs6._sl_id-content…
      Creative Suite 6 Master Collection - A$3,949.00

      United States
      http://www.adobe.com/products/catalog/cs6._sl_id-contentfilt…
      US$2,599 (Current exchange rate: AU$2889)

      Round trip ticket to United States from Australia
      On Virgin Australia, flying from Sydney to Los Angeles on Oct 20, returning Oct 25, AUD$1214

      ** Math time **
      Trip to US plus CS6: $2889 + $1214 = $4103
      Buy in Australia: $3949

      Practically the same cost.

      • Ventak on 15/09/2014 - 19:45

        Oh so they haven't fixed it (people were telling me before that they had, when it was just that they offered their Creative Cloud as a fairer alternative rather than correct the price gouge).

  • coin saver on 13/09/2014 - 12:22
    +2

    The american site has 30% discount for 3+ nights but the australian site has only 15%

    • jonno82 on 13/09/2014 - 14:10

      Good spot, I missed that, I guess it's expedia running different promotion in different region then

  • Baysew on 13/09/2014 - 14:00
    -1

    The Australia Tax is everywhere but it can be explained

    “the reason the price is a lot lower in the United States is because supply is a lot easier in the United States than it is here. Those that are willing to pay for it at that particular price slide you up the demand curve and the price curve and you end up paying those terrible wholesale prices for it, which in turn see the profits and people willing to do it. "

    SMH

    • jonno82 on 13/09/2014 - 14:23

      Um…that's about illegal drugs, and those comments are true because it is probably easier for drugs to enter US than Australia as our customs and quarantine are much more strict than most countries in the world. But when it comes to digital media, it's hard to justify monstrous price gaps between Australia and US when the delivery mode allows you to bypass many higher costs to conduct business in Australia. Like the adobe exampple raised by Ventak above, even if you purchase from online store, there's a ~2000 price gap between Australian and US online stores:

      http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/02/dont-believe-the-adobe-pri…

  • SirFlibbled on 19/09/2014 - 13:38

    With hotel rooms (and a lot of other things really) you need to also make sure you are comparing apples with Apples. The AU sites will include the total price you HAVE TO PAY. Where as the US sites will show the initial prices excluding taxes and other mandatory fees until you go in to book.

    That's been my experience anyhow.

    • jonno82 on 20/09/2014 - 01:23

      Yes the comparison was for the "total price to pay at hotel" on both sites and the New Zealand dollar value differed by approx 100

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