noirpepper

^ I also received the latest LHW email a little earlier informing the postponement of the 1928 promo. There is no need to send the form/email tomorrow if anyone is still worried about it.

notsosmart

Come on LHW, get it together. ^ ^

FlyingToFly

LHW has been impressively proactive in seeking a resolution to this fiasco. ^

mikew99

This is the first good decision that LHW has made regarding this promotion.

iahphx

Probably so, but I sure wish I hadn't spent the time finding the form, filling it out, figuring out how to attach it to my email, and setting up a draft document that I could zap tomorrow morning. Oh well, I guess I'm now qualified to work in their IT department.

So much drama for so little reward.

I do agree, though, that the system they jerry-rigged for tomorrow morning was likely to go about as well as this morning's.

samftla

Yep just got my email too saying it is postponed, oh boy do they have a mess on their hands. Would not want to be the PR person that came up with this idea.

Sam

DBCme

Wow, this thread has over 1000 replies now!

Grog

While I'm also encouraged by how LHW followed up, informed, and at least hopes to make good, the whole thing is still a mess and, regardless of postcount, I can't really bring myself to applaud the current situation.

We were here for this, we were ready; it was LHW (or those under their control) who dropped the ball. Sorry, but I really don't think the answer (whatever form it takes) should require anyone to make his- or herself available again at a specific time/place, or jump through hoops again, or wait for an e-mail next week upon which we may only have 24 hours to act. I'm going on a trip starting Saturday with no clear option of checking e-mails or Internet next week, so this solution of waiting until next week is no solution at all.

The e-mail plan was a step in the right direction, albeit with its IT issues and the contrived 80-minute window. (Yes, it's all about 80 years of LHW, but the "80" metaphor was already worked into the ground today. It indirectly contributed to the failure today, it wouldn't really have been needed tomorrow, and it shouldn't become the cause of failure in the next proposed solution.)

The fair thing to do now is to give registrants ample time (a solid week or two) to respond to any offer--anything else, and you make the promotion even sourer than it is right now.

est-gratuite

Ted Teng
president and chief executive officer of The Leading Hotels of the World


Ted Teng Shares Philosophy On Making Mistakes
(posted on youtube 2 weeks ago)


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jslDPcMVXz4



and corporate profile

http://corp.lhw.com/default.aspx?page=127




.....

celticanvil

I would be willing to bet that less than 25% of the people who registered have even stayed at an LWH property...ergo aren't really even their target market. Mrs. Anvil and I stayed at Enchantment Resort in Sedona earlier this year (and LOVED every second of it...I can't say enough good things about the experience!!) but while the 19.28 promo is cute I don't think LHW really needs to market itself this way.
If I can get something like the Biltmore for a quick sneak away, I'll be pleased but I just don't think the promo makes sense.
just my 2 cents...

2kind

I was so convinced I was going to sleep through my alarm clock that for the first few hours of sleep I remember waking up every hour on the hour checking the clock. Last time I remember was around 0415 and thought to myself, a little more sleep and then I will get up..........unfortunately slept through the alarm and woke up at 0810

adelaroc

After reading all your of these responses I am equally floored by the incompetence of LHW.

If you add up all of the wasted time that 150,000 people spent trying to get on the site just think about what the dollar value of that wasted time is.

Effectively, LHW does not value the time of their customers. Face it, we're members of LHW because we enjoy luxury experiences and are willing to pay for it. What is the average $$ value of each hour for each person wasting their time on this? Its in the $$$$ millions.

People have sued for much less.

Point made. Period.

flyyyz

While the drama is prolonged yet again, lhw is at least making efforts to re-create some sort of system that allows the masses a legitmately fair and equal chance again. i for one applaud lhw and mclader for communicating here and working to restore confidence...i don't recall many organizations admitting their mistake and working this quickly towards a satisfactory resolution.

thebkguy

Normally I would never post to a thread like this, but considering that LHW is reading the thread, I wanted to contribute the following.

It is the earmark of a very responsible company that takes steps to resolve issues related to customer-facing promotions as opposed to sweeping them under the rug. This is why people pay for premium services, they want premium companies providing a premium experience and handling issues with integrity.

Rational people, intelligent people with the resources to be profit-generating patrons of LHW understand this, and frankly have no problem with a little promo gone awry. It's more of something to be humored by than anything else. Myself, I just closed the browser and forgot about it when it was clear the site was down. No harm, no foul.

Anyone with sufficient energy and motivation to be more than just passively disappointed is probably not someone who is a well-informed, well-capitalized individual spending money at LHW hotels on a regular basis. In the few instances where this is not the case, those fringe individuals just have to be placated as would be any typical unreasonable, irate customer.

The FT community at large (generalizing, of course) suffers from the all-too-common "The Sky is Falling" ailment when it comes to their feelings of entitlement in regards to promotions.

By-and-large, the small amount of individuals who simply get behind a keyboard and get loud about things like this are such individuals, with a misguided sense of entitlement that simply cannot be satiated. You see such individuals everywhere on the Internet. Over time, you learn to detect their tone quickly and simply ignore their posts altogether. I am seeing a lot of such posts in this thread, which is disappointing.

For the rest of us, we're more impressed by LHW doing the right thing and rebooting this little promotion. This is the type of behavior I expect from a company who prides itself on luxury services and catering to discriminating consumers. I am not even remotely upset that the website went down. I had no entitlement, guarantee, or expectation of service, and therefore it would simply be immature and unreasonable of me to hold you accountable for what was clearly a simple underestimation about how successful a promotion would be.

This whole thing will be soon forgotten, except by a fringe group here on FlyerTalk, with no measurable negative repercussions on the brand. If anything, my opinion of LHW has actually improved, as the situation is being handled about as best as could be expected under the circumstances. Realizing the backup email campaign was a mistake and pulling it took a brave hand, especially after the initial fallout. My kudos to the individual who fell on the sword on that one. It was the right thing to do.

Don't lose any sleep over it. For every 1 silly person posting here with some absurd complaint, there are 1000 people who aren't losing any sleep over it, and will be just fine playing along with the updated promotion, when the time comes.

Non-NonRev

I realize that hindsight is 20/20 - but I bet that LHW now wishes that they had made this a contest only for existing Leaders Club members. Even if the necessary IT infrastructure had been in place for an open contest, given the demographic of prospective LHW customers, the concept may have been fundamentally flawed from the inception.

I realize that the potential for general-media publicity would have been diminished if it had been a restricted contest, but unlike the old Hollywood bromide, all publicity is NOT good publicity....