Business traveller advertised details today of a 24 hour holiday inn nationwide uk room sale to celebrate the olympic partnership for £20.12 a room, which should have started at 00:01 its now 00:37. When i click through to the advert I just get the regular rates displayed and when I phone the Holiday Inn Call centre got told first that the agent knew nothing of any such offer and when i tried again was told the offer had expired!!!! surely, all those rooms could not have been sold in about 3 mins
Can anyone help me here or have you guys had similar problems?
namaste - 20/12/2011 00:59 GMT
same here - although did not try calling number
I had the same experience. Only normal HI rates came up. The web pages were as normal. I phoned HI and spoke to a woman with a US accent. She said sorry it will start at 01.01.."due to daylight saving" (nonsense) Tried again at 01,08 but again only the normal HI web pages came up. Appalling service. We often stay at HI and enjoy our stays, but this is appalling customer service. What an absolute disgrace HI. You should be ashamed !
ZKSmith - 20/12/2011 01:29 GMT
Just tried it myself. Various hotels, a selection of dates, didn't work. The promotional link still shows £20.12 prices but no hotels on that page seem to offer such a deal.
Very disappointing and i waited up all night fot it. Either they are having technical difficulties in which case they should extend the offer for a further 24 hours or simply they had 2nd thoughts!
VintageKrug - 20/12/2011 07:16 GMT
The usual utter incompetence at ICHG which appears to have outsourced its website to the people who brought you bmi.com
Apparently the link /2012 was incorrectly coded as:
http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/6c/1/en/advancedsearch?roomResult=none&rateCode=ID0LY
..so no-one logging in a midnight would have seen the relevant £20.12 rates.
This one below does work, but there's not much left and virtually nothing in London:
http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/6c/1/en/advancedsearch?roomResult=none&rateCode=IDOLY
bea1234 - 20/12/2011 09:18 GMT
I had exactly the same response, at 12.01, was offered a suite at £420.00, so I waited until 1.01, no response. I then phoned and was told told the same as above and to wait another 2 or three hours (3-4 in the morning). When I protested, operator said she would look into it.
I was left on hold, no response consequently no room and a large telephone bill which I can ill afford!
watersz - 20/12/2011 09:37 GMT
I think holiday inn are famous for putting in adverts in national papers for great special rates across the country... try getting them when you phone any of the holtels-- to me the thing has been a scam for years the way they do it
I got several rooms this morning, including one for New Years Eve which saved me over £200 for the night at the Hilton. As much as I am loyal to Hilton being a diamond member, I can manage the Holiday Inn for a £180 saving for one night. Thanks very much for the notice of the sale as I would never have known otherwise - guess I was lucky!
Same issue with me - nothing!
Waste of time and effort
Not pleased
It sounds as though batraveller2 was exceedingly lucky, as the advertised Ts&Cs specifically excluded New Year's Eve!
The promotion does seem to have been slightly underwhelming overall though, and certainly not helped by the above-noted web flakiness which has frustrated Priority Club account management and IHG reservations in recent weeks.
Thanks so much for the link vintage Krug, otherwise i would not have got tonto what seem to be top secret well hidden rates. This offer was poorly advertised, IHG did not even notify their top tier PC members! Would not have known about it at all if it had not been advertised by business traveller but was very frustrated that none of the links worked but just kept getting regular rates, including one for £184 for Crowne Plaza London City which dropped down to £20 when i followed your link, don't know where you got that one from but it worked so well done, also managed to get some £20 rooms at Crowne Plaza Leeds on the nights that I wanted them as well as Hol inn Ex Leeds and Metrocentre
The attached link does not always give you £20.12 but if you do a google search it links to correct page.
xcjohnny - 21/12/2011 17:52 GMT
I went online at 0002, cheapest room at Holiday Inn Mayfair was 143. I rang reservations in the US who knew nothing about the sale. I was advised to ring the next morning which I did. At 9 am I was told by Uk reservations that there was no availability, I should have gone online or called reservations the night before. I protested that I had. I asked if there was availability at any London Hotel for my dates, and I was instantly told no. I told her that there was no way she could have checked, that I am a Platinum Member of IHG, and the answer was 'so what!' I asked for her name and she hung up. I am a HH Diamond Member as well so I have cut up the IHG card I will not be using them again. I am also reporting the 'sale' to the ASA and the OFT. They don't deserve to be in business.
It really was a shambolic occassion, while one of course understands availability will be restricted on such a great offer, it doesn not help that the links dont work and no one can get access to the promotional rates, very poor, I doubt ill waste time messing about with similar offers in future
I agree the links were wrong but if you eventually got to the right holiday inn page (as this was only one where I could get it to work) it listed the available hotels and if you went through one, it also included all hotels in area, including crowne plaza. It was hard, but there were still rooms at 2355 last night as I booked an extra one. I am a HHonors diamond member and so holiday inn will be an experience!
Im also Hilton Diamon, and silver with Marriott and platinum IHG. Holday Inns are a decent ptoduct you know what your getting, if you booked a crowne plaza they are a good solid product, comfy beds, bathrobes, complimentary bottled water and decent toiletries so, i dont think you will be to dissapointed
