The Wall Street Journal and Forbes.com both reported on June 26 that Orbitz is providing different hotel pricing options to users of Apple Macs and Windows PCs. The reason? According to Orbitz, Mac users spend as much as 30 percent more a night on hotels than PC users. That’s why the online booking website provides Mac users with higher priced hotel rooms.

Forbes quoted Orbitz President Chris Orton as telling its editors that such pricing was based on the user demographics of the different computer systems. “Six percent of our visitors these day come on an iPad, and you see some interesting demographics there,” said Orton, according to the Forbes report. “Folks who come on an iPad -- it probably reveals the underlying demographics of those users -- have an average price they’re willing to pay for a hotel that’s 23 percent higher. You see a $20 difference between a Mac user and a PC user.” In other words, Mac users are “high rollers,” according to Forbes – something that Orbitz has figured out to its advantage.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the average household income for Mac users is $98,560 compared with $74,452 for a PC owner. “Just as Mac users are willing to pay more for higher end computers, at Orbitz we’ve seen that Mac users are 40 percent more likely to book four- or five-star hotels as compared to PC users,” said Orbitz CEO Barney Harford via email to Forbes.

Forbes said Mac users can still choose to sort their hotel and flight options by price, and then see cheaper rates. Similarly, PC users can still filter their results so they get four- and five-star hotel options instead cheaper options. But Forbes said Orbitz has figured out that Mac users want nicer hotels than PC users do, so it is offering those up first. It all goes back to the consumer behavior that online marketers are tracking ever more closely. On the other hand, according to the Wall Street Journal, Priceline and Expedia said they don’t discriminate between Mac and PC users when providing hotel pricing.