[EXPIRED] Leading Hotels of the World - $19.28 a night (reg $500-$2000)
Oct 1, 2008, 5:04 pm
#976
Community Director Emerita
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Anywhere warm
Posts: 33,742
Oct 1, 2008, 5:11 pm
#977
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Santa Monica
Programs: UA Gold, MR Plat (life gold), SPG Gold
Posts: 898
Another component of availability (possibly discussed, but impossible to find with the size of this thread) are dates.
Word from a participating hotel is that there are participation dates on a per property basis, which means your hotel of choice may have limited dates as well as limited rooms. Therefore selecting "give me any available date" could be a better move if your travel is flexible.
Perhaps showing the dates available per property could help participants of this promotion narrow in requests and save some grief on requests that due to date constraints just will not work. It may also limit participation in the promotion as some people may not be able to travel at all within the preferred hotel window, so they will not bother requesting.
Word from a participating hotel is that there are participation dates on a per property basis, which means your hotel of choice may have limited dates as well as limited rooms. Therefore selecting "give me any available date" could be a better move if your travel is flexible.
Perhaps showing the dates available per property could help participants of this promotion narrow in requests and save some grief on requests that due to date constraints just will not work. It may also limit participation in the promotion as some people may not be able to travel at all within the preferred hotel window, so they will not bother requesting.
Oct 1, 2008, 5:13 pm
#978
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Wayside, NJ USA
Posts: 311
This is Marshall Calder, SVP of Marketing at The Leading Hotels again.
I regret to advise you that we have decided to postpone the $19.28 e-mail promotion scheduled for October 2nd.
... Moreover, we became increasingly concerned that the volume of e-mails from non-registered persons could be great enough to cause another outage. Since we do not wish to disappoint anyone again, we shall re-tool the $19.28 promotion and communicate the details to all registrants within the next week.
I regret to advise you that we have decided to postpone the $19.28 e-mail promotion scheduled for October 2nd.
... Moreover, we became increasingly concerned that the volume of e-mails from non-registered persons could be great enough to cause another outage. Since we do not wish to disappoint anyone again, we shall re-tool the $19.28 promotion and communicate the details to all registrants within the next week.
In the short term, however, since you already send out repeated emails detailing the steps one must follow to book on Oct 2 via email and now you are cancelling that, you should be prepared for the following: 1) many people are still excited about the deal and have already set their alarms or rearranged their schedule to send the email. When they wake up, for example, at 5am Pacific time for the second day in a row, only to find out the deals are unavailable AGAIN expect an even larger and stronger reaction than today. In other words, expect angry emails and phone calls, calls to media outlets, cancellation of existing bookings and, almost certainly, a few court filings. Yes, angry and determined travelers do these things. 2) many of the more tech savvy members among us have already programmed their computers to send the email with attachment every millisecond from now until the email is accepted so if you turn on that email mailbox it will be flooded immediately. 3) the members of this community are by and large very sophisticated travelers. For the most part they are willing to be flexible, understanding and reasonable. However, when LHWs fiasco gets made worse by the cancellation of the email event tomorrow, these members will, at a minimum demand that compensation be awarded to everyone who pre registered and spent way too much time on this already. In other words, the ability for EVERYONE to book the rate for at least 2 nights of their choice. 4) In your post you indicated that you are worried about non registered persons flooding your email. These non registered persons are probably those who heard about this promotion in the past few days in the many media outlets where this promotion was being praised. These are probably not FTers, but casual travelers who are trying to score a good deal. When they get locked out again tomorrow, they too will want compensation. So expect a backlash from them as well.
In 2008 it is not acceptable to say "we didn't know we would get so much web traffic" for a promotion like this. In short, if LHW wants to do right instead of compounding the problem LHW should probably be thinking along the lines of how to give all registered people the unrestricted ability to use and book this promotion without having to jump through hoops and without capacity controls.
Oct 1, 2008, 5:14 pm
#979
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 57
So they had a dumb idea and it failed.
I have not ever stayed at these hotels before. I never knew of this LHW alliancy thing. But now that I am aware of them I may.
It would have mad more sense to sell vouchers or something that could be used these specified hotels on the dates.
Or just let me buy all the rooms and resell them to others for little to much profits.
I have not ever stayed at these hotels before. I never knew of this LHW alliancy thing. But now that I am aware of them I may.
It would have mad more sense to sell vouchers or something that could be used these specified hotels on the dates.
Or just let me buy all the rooms and resell them to others for little to much profits.
Oct 1, 2008, 5:20 pm
#981
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 119
In the long run it is probably an excellent idea to postpone the mega email event in order to retool this promotion.
In the short term, however, since you already send out repeated emails detailing the steps one must follow to book on Oct 2 via email and now you are cancelling that, you should be prepared for the following: 1) many people are still excited about the deal and have already set their alarms or rearranged their schedule to send the email. When they wake up, for example, at 5am Pacific time for the second day in a row, only to find out the deals are unavailable AGAIN expect an even larger and stronger reaction than today. In other words, expect angry emails and phone calls, calls to media outlets, cancellation of existing bookings and, almost certainly, a few court filings. Yes, angry and determined travelers do these things. 2) many of the more tech savvy members among us have already programmed their computers to send the email with attachment every millisecond from now until the email is accepted so if you turn on that email mailbox it will be flooded immediately. 3) the members of this community are by and large very sophisticated travelers. For the most part they are willing to be flexible, understanding and reasonable. However, when LHWs fiasco gets made worse by the cancellation of the email event tomorrow, these members will, at a minimum demand that compensation be awarded to everyone who pre registered and spent way too much time on this already. In other words, the ability for EVERYONE to book the rate for at least 2 nights of their choice. 4) In your post you indicated that you are worried about non registered persons flooding your email. These non registered persons are probably those who heard about this promotion in the past few days in the many media outlets where this promotion was being praised. These are probably not FTers, but casual travelers who are trying to score a good deal. When they get locked out again tomorrow, they too will want compensation. So expect a backlash from them as well.
In 2008 it is not acceptable to say "we didn't know we would get so much web traffic" for a promotion like this. In short, if LHW wants to do right instead of compounding the problem LHW should probably be thinking along the lines of how to give all registered people the unrestricted ability to use and book this promotion without having to jump through hoops and without capacity controls.
In the short term, however, since you already send out repeated emails detailing the steps one must follow to book on Oct 2 via email and now you are cancelling that, you should be prepared for the following: 1) many people are still excited about the deal and have already set their alarms or rearranged their schedule to send the email. When they wake up, for example, at 5am Pacific time for the second day in a row, only to find out the deals are unavailable AGAIN expect an even larger and stronger reaction than today. In other words, expect angry emails and phone calls, calls to media outlets, cancellation of existing bookings and, almost certainly, a few court filings. Yes, angry and determined travelers do these things. 2) many of the more tech savvy members among us have already programmed their computers to send the email with attachment every millisecond from now until the email is accepted so if you turn on that email mailbox it will be flooded immediately. 3) the members of this community are by and large very sophisticated travelers. For the most part they are willing to be flexible, understanding and reasonable. However, when LHWs fiasco gets made worse by the cancellation of the email event tomorrow, these members will, at a minimum demand that compensation be awarded to everyone who pre registered and spent way too much time on this already. In other words, the ability for EVERYONE to book the rate for at least 2 nights of their choice. 4) In your post you indicated that you are worried about non registered persons flooding your email. These non registered persons are probably those who heard about this promotion in the past few days in the many media outlets where this promotion was being praised. These are probably not FTers, but casual travelers who are trying to score a good deal. When they get locked out again tomorrow, they too will want compensation. So expect a backlash from them as well.
In 2008 it is not acceptable to say "we didn't know we would get so much web traffic" for a promotion like this. In short, if LHW wants to do right instead of compounding the problem LHW should probably be thinking along the lines of how to give all registered people the unrestricted ability to use and book this promotion without having to jump through hoops and without capacity controls.
Oct 1, 2008, 5:24 pm
#982
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: NC, USA
Programs: AA Gold 1MM, AA Exec Plat, Marriott Lifetime Plat, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 1,012
Oct 1, 2008, 5:27 pm
#983
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: MESA, AZ USA
Posts: 260
the best way is to fill the form in on the computer and save as a doc.
After you fill it in, save to your desktop and then just add as an attachment to the email. I have done it and it works. IF you do not have office just copy and paste into what ever document program you have and do the same. You do not even have to print it off.
After you fill it in, save to your desktop and then just add as an attachment to the email. I have done it and it works. IF you do not have office just copy and paste into what ever document program you have and do the same. You do not even have to print it off.
Oct 1, 2008, 5:29 pm
#984
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Santa Monica
Programs: UA Gold, MR Plat (life gold), SPG Gold
Posts: 898
What the poster was indicating is that LHW posting to FT instead of communicating to the other 99% of the promotion participants is not an extremely official way of communicating.
in addition, perhaps there is some doubt to the authenticity of the LHW exec's posting and instead a randon poster trying to eliminate other emailers. Not my sense, but I would expect another official communication from LHW regarding the change.
We're going to need a $19.28 massage when we get done with this
in addition, perhaps there is some doubt to the authenticity of the LHW exec's posting and instead a randon poster trying to eliminate other emailers. Not my sense, but I would expect another official communication from LHW regarding the change.
We're going to need a $19.28 massage when we get done with this
Oct 1, 2008, 5:32 pm
#985
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 11,377
Yep. I agree. mcalder's e-mails seem authentic, but it is sort of inexcusable that they haven't sent a mass e-mail out announcing the scrapping of the e-mail plan.
Oct 1, 2008, 5:35 pm
#987
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: NOVA
Programs: IHG Rewards Platinum, Marriott Gold, Hilton Diamond, UA/DL/AA Back of the plane...
Posts: 4,612
Oct 1, 2008, 5:37 pm
#988
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Kelowna
Programs: AS AC AA SPG IHG Gold
Posts: 215
In the long run it is probably an excellent idea to postpone the mega email event in order to retool this promotion.
In the short term, however, since you already send out repeated emails detailing the steps one must follow to book on Oct 2 via email and now you are cancelling that, you should be prepared for the following: 1) many people are still excited about the deal and have already set their alarms or rearranged their schedule to send the email. When they wake up, for example, at 5am Pacific time for the second day in a row, only to find out the deals are unavailable AGAIN expect an even larger and stronger reaction than today. In other words, expect angry emails and phone calls, calls to media outlets, cancellation of existing bookings and, almost certainly, a few court filings. Yes, angry and determined travelers do these things. 2) many of the more tech savvy members among us have already programmed their computers to send the email with attachment every millisecond from now until the email is accepted so if you turn on that email mailbox it will be flooded immediately. 3) the members of this community are by and large very sophisticated travelers. For the most part they are willing to be flexible, understanding and reasonable. However, when LHWs fiasco gets made worse by the cancellation of the email event tomorrow, these members will, at a minimum demand that compensation be awarded to everyone who pre registered and spent way too much time on this already. In other words, the ability for EVERYONE to book the rate for at least 2 nights of their choice. 4) In your post you indicated that you are worried about non registered persons flooding your email. These non registered persons are probably those who heard about this promotion in the past few days in the many media outlets where this promotion was being praised. These are probably not FTers, but casual travelers who are trying to score a good deal. When they get locked out again tomorrow, they too will want compensation. So expect a backlash from them as well.
In 2008 it is not acceptable to say "we didn't know we would get so much web traffic" for a promotion like this. In short, if LHW wants to do right instead of compounding the problem LHW should probably be thinking along the lines of how to give all registered people the unrestricted ability to use and book this promotion without having to jump through hoops and without capacity controls.
In the short term, however, since you already send out repeated emails detailing the steps one must follow to book on Oct 2 via email and now you are cancelling that, you should be prepared for the following: 1) many people are still excited about the deal and have already set their alarms or rearranged their schedule to send the email. When they wake up, for example, at 5am Pacific time for the second day in a row, only to find out the deals are unavailable AGAIN expect an even larger and stronger reaction than today. In other words, expect angry emails and phone calls, calls to media outlets, cancellation of existing bookings and, almost certainly, a few court filings. Yes, angry and determined travelers do these things. 2) many of the more tech savvy members among us have already programmed their computers to send the email with attachment every millisecond from now until the email is accepted so if you turn on that email mailbox it will be flooded immediately. 3) the members of this community are by and large very sophisticated travelers. For the most part they are willing to be flexible, understanding and reasonable. However, when LHWs fiasco gets made worse by the cancellation of the email event tomorrow, these members will, at a minimum demand that compensation be awarded to everyone who pre registered and spent way too much time on this already. In other words, the ability for EVERYONE to book the rate for at least 2 nights of their choice. 4) In your post you indicated that you are worried about non registered persons flooding your email. These non registered persons are probably those who heard about this promotion in the past few days in the many media outlets where this promotion was being praised. These are probably not FTers, but casual travelers who are trying to score a good deal. When they get locked out again tomorrow, they too will want compensation. So expect a backlash from them as well.
In 2008 it is not acceptable to say "we didn't know we would get so much web traffic" for a promotion like this. In short, if LHW wants to do right instead of compounding the problem LHW should probably be thinking along the lines of how to give all registered people the unrestricted ability to use and book this promotion without having to jump through hoops and without capacity controls.
Yes, many of us lost sleep. Our choice.
But let's remember, they never promised us a hotel room in the first place.
We knew it was a gamble.
So their 'game' turned out to be badly planned and they are going to try to provide a substitute 'game' we can play.
Let's wait and see what they come up with.
I can't see that we are entitled to anything, other than their best efforts to provide a new, fairer 'game'.
Oct 1, 2008, 5:46 pm
#989
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: IAD/DCA
Posts: 31,797
i just called leaders club, and they said its on for tomorrow... they hadnt heard anything about another postponement.
funny... right after i hung up >
i guess i should note that i joined leaders this afternoon i think it was.
that seems to clear up whether marshall calder on this forum is indeed marshall, or another exec.
while we have yet to see how good their next solution is, im glad they responded so quickly initially to assuage our initial concerns of a potential "scam," and that they seem to at least be thinking about the problem, even if they dont end up coming up with a fantastic solution.
funny... right after i hung up >
Thank you so much for your continued patience with The Leading Hotels of the World. We are extremely sorry for the inconveniences we have caused and regret to advise you that the USD 19.28 email promotion scheduled for tomorrow October 2nd shall be postponed.
Although our original back-up plan provided a viable solution for the 150,000 people who were registered, it was met with some confusion over submission procedures and timing. In addition, we have become increasingly concerned that a large number of non-registered respondents plan to submit forms which would inundate the system and greatly diminish your chances of securing a USD 19.28 rate.
In view of this, please do not email your form tomorrow. You will most likely receive an error message we have put in place as a safety mechanism.
We are sincerely committed to restoring your faith in our brand and do not want to risk disappointing you again. We are working tirelessly to develop a solution that will be fair for you and all registered participants. We will email you next week with further details.
Sincerely,
Ted Teng
President & CEO
The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd.
Although our original back-up plan provided a viable solution for the 150,000 people who were registered, it was met with some confusion over submission procedures and timing. In addition, we have become increasingly concerned that a large number of non-registered respondents plan to submit forms which would inundate the system and greatly diminish your chances of securing a USD 19.28 rate.
In view of this, please do not email your form tomorrow. You will most likely receive an error message we have put in place as a safety mechanism.
We are sincerely committed to restoring your faith in our brand and do not want to risk disappointing you again. We are working tirelessly to develop a solution that will be fair for you and all registered participants. We will email you next week with further details.
Sincerely,
Ted Teng
President & CEO
The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd.
that seems to clear up whether marshall calder on this forum is indeed marshall, or another exec.
while we have yet to see how good their next solution is, im glad they responded so quickly initially to assuage our initial concerns of a potential "scam," and that they seem to at least be thinking about the problem, even if they dont end up coming up with a fantastic solution.
Last edited by Kagehitokiri; Oct 1, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Oct 1, 2008, 5:50 pm
#990
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 1,006
Just received this email
Dear maclover,
Thank you so much for your continued patience with The Leading Hotels of the World. We are extremely sorry for the inconveniences we have caused and regret to advise you that the USD 19.28 email promotion scheduled for tomorrow October 2nd shall be postponed.
Although our original back-up plan provided a viable solution for the 150,000 people who were registered, it was met with some confusion over submission procedures and timing. In addition, we have become increasingly concerned that a large number of non-registered respondents plan to submit forms which would inundate the system and greatly diminish your chances of securing a USD 19.28 rate.
In view of this, please do not email your form tomorrow. You will most likely receive an error message we have put in place as a safety mechanism.
We are sincerely committed to restoring your faith in our brand and do not want to risk disappointing you again. We are working tirelessly to develop a solution that will be fair for you and all registered participants. We will email you next week with further details.
Sincerely,
Ted Teng
President & CEO
The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd.
Dear maclover,
Thank you so much for your continued patience with The Leading Hotels of the World. We are extremely sorry for the inconveniences we have caused and regret to advise you that the USD 19.28 email promotion scheduled for tomorrow October 2nd shall be postponed.
Although our original back-up plan provided a viable solution for the 150,000 people who were registered, it was met with some confusion over submission procedures and timing. In addition, we have become increasingly concerned that a large number of non-registered respondents plan to submit forms which would inundate the system and greatly diminish your chances of securing a USD 19.28 rate.
In view of this, please do not email your form tomorrow. You will most likely receive an error message we have put in place as a safety mechanism.
We are sincerely committed to restoring your faith in our brand and do not want to risk disappointing you again. We are working tirelessly to develop a solution that will be fair for you and all registered participants. We will email you next week with further details.
Sincerely,
Ted Teng
President & CEO
The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd.