Did you try to book the Ala Moana Hotel for $10 per night today? We wrote about the Ala Moana Hotel’s sale last week and were excited to try to book a room ourselves today at 10am when the sale started. Unfortunately, the only response we have gotten is an unavailable website.
Updated March 18, 2013:
- 12:15pm hst. Website remains unavailable. This is leaving people with a very negative impression as reflected in comments below.Â
- 2:25pm hst. Website is redirecting to “maintenance mode” page asking that we call. I’ve tried calling more than 10 times and so far only a busy signal.
- 6:00pm hst. Hotel indicates the sale is being rescheduled. Stand by for more information.
What happened
Rooms at the $10 rate are still available so please keep trying. –Nancy Daniels, Outrigger
Apparently the hotel’s website and online booking engine were simply unprepared for the huge number of requests received. At 11am HST, we reached out and spoke with Nancy Daniels, Director of Public Relations for Outrigger. She said that they are aware of the problem and are working as quickly as possible to rectify it. She also indicated that rooms at the $10 rate are still available so please keep trying. They will also be posting updates on their Facebook fan page.
This is a good example of where very positive publicity can quickly become a liability instead of an asset.
Did you try to book the $10 Hawaii hotel sale?
If so did you succeed? Please let us know. If we ever get to book, we’ll let you know as well.
Was Ala Moana Hotel prepared for the web traffic that such a sale would generate?
Nancy Daniels is not in IT and therefore could not comment on that. There are, however, readily available tools that allow companies to test what will happen with say up to 100,000 simultaneous visitors online.
Wow…what an awful thread of comments to read. Sounds like a mall mob on Black Friday. Ugly.
Scam!! 2 weeks in a row! We had 4 of us fill out the form right at 1pm and it said the sale was over and all coupons were taken..
Very disappointed!!
Here’s what was posted on their website:
To our Ala Moana Hotel Customers, mahalo for the enthusiastic response to our Tax Relief 1040 promotion today. While several reservations did make it through, the response was so enthusiastic our website was not fully capable of responding to the incredible demand.
So, we’re taking a pause to regroup.
An announcement will be posted later this week to our Facebook page where we’ll will let you know how this promotion will be restarted and completed.
Thank you for your wholehearted participation.
Mahalo,
The Ala Moana Hotel Team
There are two words to describe what happened today: epic fail! I still have hopes Outrigger can make it right, but right now they just have a lot of angry, frustrated customers! Thanks to Beat of Hawaii for providing better communication than Outrigger did!
well, after 7 hours of waiting and checking it out, over and over and over again, it is on hold. Beat of Hawaii — thanks for notifying us about this in the first place, and keeping us updated. And please let us know “when” they get this repaired and back on, in a few days?! Aloha, Stephanie
They have posted an update to their Facebook page:
“To our Ala Moana Hotel Customers, mahalo for the enthusiastic response to our Tax Relief 1040 promotion today. While several reservations did make it through, the response was so enthusiastic our website was not fully capable of responding to the incredible demand.
So, we’re taking a pause to regroup.
An announcement will be posted later this week to our Facebook page where we’ll will let you know how this promotion will be restarted and completed.
Thank you for your wholehearted participation.
Mahalo,
The Ala Moana Hotel Team”
FINAL UPDATE…
At 4:25 pm, the Ala Moana Hotel finally posted an update on this promotion.
In my opinion the response left much to be desired, especially for those of us who spent neatly 6 1/2 hours trying to get this special rate.
Again, mahalo for everything Beat of Hawaii has done.
After 7 hours…. the result on their Facebook page….
https://www.facebook.com/AlaMoanaHotel
Aloha Ala Moana Hotel Customers,
Mahalo for the enthusiastic response to our Tax Relief 1040 promotion today. While many reservations did make it through, the response was so enthusiastic our website was not fully capable of responding to the incredible demand.
So, we’re taking a pause to regroup.
An announcement will be posted later this week here on our Facebook page where we will let you know how this promotion will be restarted and completed.
Thank you for your wholehearted participation.
Mahalo,
The Ala Moana Hotel Team