Roundup: Leading Hotels of the World $19.28 deal apology; kidnapped tourists freed; travel gifts under $50
Good morning, travelers! We’ve been talking about the Leading Hotels of the World $19.28 anniversary deal a fair bit in recent days. Most of the comments we’ve received have been from travelers who tried to get the deal but couldn’t get through on the Leading Hotels of the World website. Let us know if you got up at 5 a.m. PST and were able to score a deal. I’m hoping there are some success stories out there. Did you aim for a hotel in North America or did you shoot for one of their locations worldwide?
For those that were not able to get in, the Leading Hotels of the World has an apology on their website regarding technical difficulties, and it sounds like you could have another chance.
“Due to the overwhelming number of consumers participating in this promotion, we have indeed experienced technical difficulties. Despite our efforts to carefully manage and prepare for this worldwide promotion, we were unable to meet the demand.
“Please accept our sincere apologies. You will be receiving another opportunity to participate in this offer shortly via the e-mail you provided to register for this promotion….”
Italy | Think of it as a challenge. Can you get across the new Constitution Bridge (pictured) in Venice without tripping? Some can’t. Read: “Santiago Calatrava Ankles Venice.”
Egypt | The 11 German, Italian and Romanian tourists and their Egyptian guides who were kidnapped Sept. 19 in a remote area near the painted caves of Gilf al Kebir, were freed Monday during a rescue mission near the borders of Libya, Egypt and Sudan. The area where the tourists were kidnapped is 550 miles southwest of Cairo and little traveled by tourists. Read: “Tourists Kidnapped in Egypt Are Freed.”
Travel gear | BootsnAll’s Travel Gear Blog has a list of 50 Gifts Under $50 for Travelers. Now is a great time to start thinking about (and shopping) for the holidays. I liked Byer Parachute Traveler Hammock for $20, the Petzl Tikka Plus LED headlamp for $35 and the Coleman retro rechargeable full-size lantern for $42. Although there are a few items for all types of travel, campers and hikers will be the most pleased. I might have to get my husband the Coleman camping coffee maker for $40. I’d never seen anything like it and will admit I laughed out loud.
– Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal blogger
[Photo credit: Andrea Merola / European Pressphoto Agency]
18 Comments on “Roundup: Leading Hotels of the World $19.28 deal apology; kidnapped tourists freed; travel gifts under $50”
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October 1st, 2008 at 8:17 am
I tried to get on the LHW website at 7AM (EST) just to see if I could get on, and nothing. I tried until 9:20AM and couldn’t get through.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:19 am
Me again. I forgot to mention that at one point after the promotion was over, there was a message stating that 3,000 people were able to get rooms. However, I tried to refresh the page and get to that message again, but I couldn’t.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:32 am
I woke up early and was unable to book the offer. LHW’s website was down the entire period. I tried to pre-register the night before and their website was also not working at the time. I tried calling reservations and their lines were busy. Flyertalk.com has 47 pages of people experiencing the same issue. I am very curious to see the results of their promotion.
October 1st, 2008 at 9:27 am
Grrrr! I got to work so early this morning, looking forward to scoring that $19.28 deal at the Copocabana Palace in Rio. Oh well.
October 1st, 2008 at 9:29 am
I just posted an email on my blog that I received from the VP of Corporate Communications - they’re have a do-over soon, apparently no one got on.
October 1st, 2008 at 9:48 am
Got the e-mail (3 of them, all with minor revisions). If you were able to pre-register, and only if, then you will be sent an e-mail with a document download. The document states that again tomorrow morning, you must e-mail the document back to the LHW e-mail for 80 minutes starting at 5AM (PT). It will be (again) on a first come, first serve basis. This all sounds fine and good, but what happens when you get thousands of e-mails at the same exact moment?
October 1st, 2008 at 10:04 am
Thanks for the do-over info Anthony. I got several emails as well, but the document and make-up instructions were not attached. I’m trying to get my hands on it.
– Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal blogger
October 1st, 2008 at 10:21 am
Hi Jen, just as a quick pointer. The document wasn’t easy to find as it wasn’t sent as an attachment. It was a link within the first two e-mails and then it was a direct download link in the third.
October 1st, 2008 at 10:28 am
@Anthony - I wonder if what the exec told me about taking my name out of third-party lists mean they took it off ALL the lists? Hope not!
October 1st, 2008 at 11:02 am
I copied the message that appeared three minutes after the promotion allegedly ended - here it is.
Thank you for your interest in the 1928 Promotion.
We regret to inform you that the more than 6000 room nights available at the start of this promotion have all been sold. Congratulations to the lucky participants who were able to get a reservation as part of this great offer!
Still interested in travelling with us? While we can’t offer you rooms at USD 19.28, we can still offer some great values, including bundles of 3 nights for the price of 2, 4 for the price of 3, or 7 for the price of 5, as well as discounted weekend rates and other Leading Offers.
so - was this just a blatant lie?
not impressed, “leading” hotels of the world…
October 1st, 2008 at 11:13 am
Thanks Anthony - I finally found the “Click here” link that directed me to the word doc. After I downloaded the doc, I got an alert on my computer about Macros - I had to “Enable Macros” in order to get the doc in a form that I could fill out. Otherwise, if you “Disable Macros” you’ll just get the doc as “Read Only”.
Good luck to everyone who will try the do-over tomorrow! Let us know if you get your first, second or third choice.
– Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal blogger
October 1st, 2008 at 11:18 am
Too bad I couldn’t even get on their site to preregister. LHW is full of FAIL.
October 1st, 2008 at 2:27 pm
I clipped the article this weekend and thought I’d try since I’m an early riser. To my surprise, I slept in late this morning but got up just under the gun. I tried at 6:15 but no luck. I figured that the whole thing had just been a scam. If it was for real and I could try again that would be great!
October 1st, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Don’t get up early again tomorrow - they’re changing things again:
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.
We developed a back-up plan for the 150,000 persons who registered for the promotion prior to the failure of our website this morning. Unfortunately, aspects of the plan were met with some confusion over e-mail procedures and timing. 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.
Finally, I wish to thank our friends in FT. While the criticism that was directed towards us was deserved, the insights, suggestions and commentary is extremely helpful and appreciated.
Regards,
Marshall Calder
October 1st, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Jeff - thanks for sharing Marshall’s words. Makes sense not to try again too soon if there are still kinks to work out.
– Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal blogger
October 1st, 2008 at 7:13 pm
If the company is having this many problems with the contest, just think of the chaos when people try to use their $19.28 reservations.
I was probably one of the first people to register for contest and was probably one of the first people to unsubscribe when I learned I was going to get a reservations.
Now I’m probably going to get spammed by every company they seel my e-mail address to..great!!
October 1st, 2008 at 11:29 pm
I got up at 5am PST, after not sleeping all night because I was worried I’d sleep through the alarm, and reloaded constantly for an hour and a half. FAIL.
October 9th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
“within the next week,” according to my calendar, has come and gone