Last chance for this great deal

Set your clocks: At 8 a.m. Miami time tomorrow, Oct. 1, the Leading Hotels of the World will put rooms on sale for $19.28. It's a limited window: The 6,000 rooms available at many of the group's worldwide hotels can be booked only for 80 minutes. The rate is valid for stays between Nov. 1 and Dec. 15 at participating hotels, and there's a limit of 2 nights per person.

In order to purchase tomorrow, you have to register. You can do so at www.lhw.com/1928.

So why the deal? It's Leading Hotels' 80th birthday (you guessed it, the group was founded in 1928.)

The list of participating hotels includes many of the world's finest lodgings: Villa d'Este in northern Italy; Table Bay in Capetown, South Africa; the Adlon Kempenski in Berlin; the Hay-Adams in Washington, D.C.,  the Alex Hotel in New York City; and right here at home, the Biltmore.

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Photo: Biltmore Hotel, Miami Herald Staff

Comments

[Brent O.]

Wow! That is a seriously good deal. Can't wait!

[EZCOME]

Up early and on LHW site before 8 AM- After nearly 75 minutes of continuous efforts to log onto the Leading Hotels of the World promotion site, with no response, while simultaneously calling their 800 reservation number repeatedly on speed dial, frustration was setting in.

At first their website put up a message that said they were experiencing a lot of customer response to this promotion and to be patient but keep trying to access their promotion site.

Next, I got a response on their site that said they were having technical difficulties beyond their control.

Following that, I got another message saying that due to technical difficulties they were suspending the promotion.

Then, low and behold, I got their 800 reservations operator...."no, you can not make a reservation for this promotion over the phone", "yes we know we have problems with internet access to this promotion"....but "no we can not help you in spite of our technical problems".... and no apology or suggestions for how to take advantage of the promotion other than to keep trying their technically challenged website.

Next, after more pinging of their site for almost 90 minutes, I finally got their sign-in screen. As I had already pre-registered, I entered my email address/password and clicked through.....and waited....and waited....and finally got a screen that said that all 6000 rooms available under the LHW-1928 promotion had been sold out!

After investing over two hours in this fiasco, I came away wondering if this was a real promotion, a demotion or just an attack on my emotions......needless to say if their website and servers were working, they were in slow motion.... I suspect many of their customers will also be very slow to return to book a room, at any price, after this experience!

A famous architect once said, "God is in the details"...to which others have since replied, "The Devil is in the details". Obvioulsy the marketing folks at LHW weren't familiar with these parabals!