The Tendo View

If you were smart, you were still in bed at 5 a.m. this morning. That’s where I wish I’d been. Instead I was click, click, clicking away at my laptop in hopes of scoring two nights at a luxury hotel somewhere across the globe for a mere $19.28 per night.

Leading Hotels of the World launched a worldwide promotion to celebrate its 80th anniversary. “At 12 noon GMT (8 a.m. EDT) on October 1, 2008, we will release a limited number of the world’s most-coveted hotel rooms at the unprecedented rate of USD 19.28 per night. For 80 minutes only, registered consumers will be able to secure the celebratory USD 19.28 rate and experience a multitude of our iconic members.”

From 5 a.m. until 6 a.m. PDT (when I surrendered and went back to bed), the only thing I saw on their website was, “Sorry! Due to the overwhelming number of consumers currently trying to access this promotion, your request is being delayed momentarily. Please be patient, don’t get discouraged, and retry in a few seconds by clicking here, or by going back to http://www.lhw.com/1928.”

LHW may understand the finer points of hospitality and luxury, but they do not understand the importance of building server infrastucture to support a worldwide viral promotion. During the next few days, we shall find out if they understand how to control the damage their failed promotion has created.

This is the current message on their site.

How would you handle this failure? Is an apology and promise of a do-over enough? —Anna Marie F. Panlilio, marketing specialist