"The World for $1" Promo Begins Pissing Off People Today

January 26, 2009 at 12:46 PM | by JetSetCD | Comments (3)

While we're still a little sore from that whole $19.28 promotion gone wrong from the Leading Hotels of the World, LastMinuteTravel.com's "World for a Dollar" contest is too good to be ignored. The deal is, supposedly, that if you're among the first 500 people to book a hotel stay during a secret 15-minute period each weekday when they mark down all of their hotels to $1, then you've got up to seven nights in a top-notch property for $7. This will happen every weekday starting today through the end of next week. It's got to be too good to be true, right?

Right, if your time is precious and you value your sanity. You see, once LastMinuteTravel has you dreaming of "winning" a cheap escape, you get to scheming. The confusing clues they're trickling out in a zany video series are definitely not helping either; we'd come up with about eight theories for when today's countdown would begin, and all were wrong.

Taking us completely by surprise, today's 15 minutes happened from 10:39 to 10:54am, EST. We randomly caught it with four minutes to spare, and although we feverishly went to work attempting a booking, the website has three mean tricks up its sleeve to frustrate you all the more:

1): After entering your details to find your hotel, the website subjects you to an agonizing 2-3 minute video about the features of their new website. Since we thought the page was malfunctioning by taking us to that, we kept refreshing and missing out on booking.
2): Prior research does very little good as not all properties are available during the time limit. For instance, we'd searched for a hotel in the Central district of Hong Kong. Outside of the 15 minutes, LMT shows four available properties. Inside of the 15 minutes, we were only shown two.
3): Before completing your booking, more time is wasted with a survey you must fill out regarding your online travel purchasing habits.

There is hope, however, as some people chatting about this in the Slick Deals forum were on the button and had luck in booking properties like Disney's Grand Floridian, Trump Las Vegas, Atlantis in the Bahamas, and the Avenue Suite in New York's Gramercy Park Hotel. Now that the initial moment has passed, the big issue is whether or not winning these hotel rooms means reporting it on your taxes.

With so many obstacles and unanswered questions, this promo is beginning to resemble that puzzle contraption in The Da Vinci Code; it's too difficult to bother with, but too tempting to simply let alone. Let us know in the comments where you're trying for and if you'd had any success. You already know our secret: Hong Kong.

Comments (3)

Return to » "The World for $1" Promo Begins Pissing Off People Today

Has anyone addressed the issue of the commercials surrounding the offer? They make me want to gouge my own eyeballs out. Behold the viral-ness here.

The people saying they booked 5* hotels probably work for the company. Because I have been in the running 3 times since yesterday and didn't book anything because they pull all the good hotels during the alloted time frame to book for free. The 4.5* and 5* hotels disappear during that time frame and are back directly after it's over. They did not state that in their terms or commercials supposedly your supposed to be able to book 5* hotels but, none come up. They also have changed their terms and conditions numerous times. If their going to do this they should do it right. They clearly state that their whole site is going to be on sale for a dollar and that's not the case. I called and was told that they can't just give away a $500 a night room and that's fine but, they shouldn't advertise it like that then. I hope they get it together tomorrow and leave the hotels on the site that are there before and after. I have a feeling they are going to have boat loads are trouble if they don't because many people are angry about this.

Quiggle's got a point. Certain hotels are available immediately before and immediately after the promo--that is, within seconds after the promo ends-- but unavailable during the time window. The promo clearly says all its hotels will be available. They claim this is true, that they are just selling out, but the timing does not support that claim.

The videos are annoying, but they don't cross the line. This is a marketing promo after all. But the site misrepresents itself with the hotel availability.

Also beware: This site seems to seriously inflate its star ratings. I booked a 3-star during the contest. (All the 4-star plus disappeared, only to reappear like magic as soon as the timer expired.) Yikes. Other bookers I've used seem to have higher standards. I was trying in NYC, which is a tricky market, but still, not what I'd consider a 3-star. Not even close. More like a nice hostel with private rooms. As a result, this promo has actually made me less likely to use their site, because the "undercover" part is just too risky. At least with a site like Hotwire, you have a little brand assurance.

They would have been better off making the challenge more difficult, with fewer but better quality prizes, than giving off the impression of a schlocky site.

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