LASTMINUTETRAVEL.COM AMAZING DEAL NOT SO AMAZING; LUXURY LINK ROCKS

[thepiranha]

I put up a post two weeks ago about the amazing $1 per night lastminutetravel.com promotion in which they were selling rooms at over 15,000 hotels worldwide for only $1 per night including tax. The promotion was to run for fifteen minutes every day, Monday through Friday, for two weeks. The catch was that lastminutetravel didn't tell anybody, including their telephone operators, when that fifteen minutes was going to occur. On top of that, the fifteen minutes was broken down into smaller intervals at multiple times during the day. If a person was lucky enough to get onto the website during that short window, they had to watch two videos that ate up a significant chunk of the time. Since bookings had to be completed by the end of the timed period, thousands of people were frustrated that they couldn't complete their bookings on time. I was one of those people.



I carefully prepared myself by researching all of the available hotels. During the timed windows, names of the hotels were hidden but descriptions were available. I entered all of my information on my computer so I would just have to click the submit button to begin entering my booking. I had my laptop next to my computer, continually refreshing the screen every 25 seconds and the volume on fairly loud so I would be able to hear the timer once it started.



Despite my preparation and the fact that I was near my computers for most of the promotion, I still wasn't able to get a room for a dollar. The blog on the lastminutetravel website is loaded with complaints from people and some are threatening to contact the Better Business Bureau or to sue the company. This is very similar to the recent situation when Leading Hotels of the World had a similar, although not as good, promotion. That promotion was rescheduled and by my estimate, only 2% of the people registered for the promotion were able to obtain rooms.



So what have I learned from this situation? I've learned that while very, very few people may in fact benefit from these types of promotions, they're basically a way to attract new customers to a website. I will continue to try to take advantage of these great promotions even if the odds of actually obtaining a room at a ridiculously low price are astronomical, but I won't have high hopes of doing so.



More important, I've learned that trusted websites such as Luxury Link don't have to play games to win customers. Luxury Link offers great packages all over the world at extremely competitive prices. They back up their packages with outstanding customer service and they maintain a website that is both entertaining, enjoyable and educational. Keep up the great work!

[mary-j]

No wonder you are angry about this. I rememember you keeping us updated on it and to me it all sounded so much bother. I initially was going to try also but after reading how difficult you were finding it, Ii decided against it.



These people should feel guilty about "using" the public as scapegoats for their underhand practices. This is twice we have been caught out with this type of "fraud", because personally i think it is.

The publicare going to be very wary now about taking part in any other similar types of promotions.



So sorry Piranha, to hear that after all your hard work and time you spent was all just in vain.

[thepiranha]

Mary-J, it's disappointing when a company runs a promotion and you think that it's legitimate, but it really isn't. While this legally might not be fraud, lastminutetravel.com did everything they could to make it difficult to book a room. Inserting videos while the clock was ticking, breaking the fifteen minute period into multiple periods, and I think that they didn't even run the promotion on some days, even though it was clearly stated in the rules that they would do so. I'm sticking with Luxury Link. No tricks, no games. What you see is what you get. Great deals at great prices.