The Wall Street Journal reports today that Orbitz has been mining user data and found some interesting results.  Turns out that Mac computer users spend as much as 30% more a night on hotels compared to PC users.

As a result, Orbitz may now show them different, and sometimes more expensive, travel options than Windows visitors see.  It is important to note that the travel site isn’t showing the same room to different users at different prices, just showing different hotel offers to the two groups.

- On average Mac users spend $20 to $30 more a night on hotels.

- Mac users are 40% more likely to book a four- or five-star hotel than PC users.

- When Mac and PC users book the same hotel, Mac users tend to stay in more expensive rooms.

- According to Forrester research, the average household income for adult owners of Mac computers is $98,560, compared with $74,452 for a PC owner.

“We had the intuition, and we were able to confirm it based on the data,” Orbitz Chief Technology Officer Roger Liew said.

Interestingly, spokesmen for rival travel sites Expedia, Priceline and Tavelocity stated that they do not use computer operating system data when suggesting hotel results.