HOTELS

Derek Gale

Leading Postpones 1928 Promotion
October 1, 2008

Is it possible for a marketing program to be too successful? One wouldn’t think so, but that seems to be exactly what occurred with The Leading Hotels of the World’s 80th anniversary promotion.

(Be sure to read all the way to the bottom of this blog post, as it has been updated twice since the original posting)

Leading put out the word two weeks ago that it would embrace its founding year, 1928, with a promotion in which it would release a limited number of rooms at participating member properties around the globe at the rate of US$19.28 per night for a maximum of two nights (for stays between November 1 and December 15, 2008).

Guests interested in booking rooms at this rate were asked to pre-register on a dedicated page of the Leading Web site, and then this morning, for 80 minutes, they were to have the opportunity to secure rooms at the celebratory rate.

Of course, word got out about the great deal, and what must have been hordes of potential customers pre-registered and then flocked to Leading’s site earlier today.

I was one of those people, and despite my most diligent efforts, I was unable to access Leading's online reservation system because of the huge amount of traffic to the Web site.

I later returned to the site, only to find the following message from Leading:

“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. 

In the meantime, please rest assured that we will not be saving your email address in our database for any future solicitations.

Thank you for your understanding.

The Leading Hotels of the World Ltd.”

While I appreciate the explanation, I am disappointed in Leading’s lack of preparation. Other organizations offering wildly popular products through their Web sites (such as the Chicago Cubs selling baseball tickets) set up online traffic management systems to handle the hordes of visitors they receive. I wonder why Leading did not do the same?

I’m currently trying to reach someone from Leading for comment on this matter, so stay tuned…

Until then, what are your thoughts? Can some promotions be too successful?

UPDATE: This just in from Claudia Kozma Kaplan, vice president of corporate communications for The Leading Hotels of the World.

Following an overwhelming response to its online 80th anniversary promotion today, The Leading Hotels of the World confirmed that the dedicated promotional Web site had failed.

Despite efforts to carefully manage and plan for this worldwide promotion, the traffic exceeded many hundred times the volume per second than the norm. Even with significantly increased server capacity and upgraded infrastructure, the system was insufficiently prepared to cope with the demand. Technical difficulties ensued and the system was unable to take reservations.

The Leading Hotels of the World confirmed that every individual who pre-registered for the promotion is currently being contacted by e-mail. With this apology and explanatory e-mail, there will be a form which will allow them to re-attempt to secure reservations at the promotional USD 19.28 rate via e-mail.

The Leading Hotels of the World would like to assure all pre-registered individuals that all e-mail addresses collected for the purpose of this promotion will be deleted once the offer is completed.

Ted Teng, President & CEO, The Leading Hotels of the World states:

"Today we suffered a catastrophic technical failure, which is uncharacteristic for our highly respected brand. We should have been better prepared and we weren't. We disappointed many people and I apologize for that. We intend on making every effort to restore our customers' confidence."

UPDATE: Commenter Alan (see below) provides the latest news about this promotion, which is essentially that it has been postponed again. Leading CEO Ted Teng apologizes once again and says Leading is working on a fair solution and will provide an update via e-mail next week. 

What do you think of the way Leading is handling this good promotion gone bad? Are you satisfied? Will potential guests be satisfied if in the end they are not able to secure any room for USD 19.28?

Posted by Derek Gale on October 1, 2008 | Comments (4)