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.
- 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.
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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
They just posted a message on the Facebook page 10:37 E.S.T. – they are taking a break and will inform people soon how they have decided to proceed with the special rate.
I tried getting through their online reservation system earlier today to no avail. Just tried again and was redirected to call their Customer Service and was informed that Ala Moana/Outrigger has pulled the special and it will be made available at a future date but you’ll need to follow their Facebook page. No apology made. No accountability taken. This is a prime example of VERY POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE. Very disappointed, to say the least.
It has now been more than six hours. The website is still not operational. Nor has there yet been an update or comment from Outrigger, other that what you reported. Still nothing on Facebook. Still no indication of when, if ever, the promotion will be available. No way to sign up for the deal via email, and let Outrigger contact us,
I agree that it’s not the website itself, but poor planning on Outrigger’s part in not anticipating the overload. Nevertheless, it is still Outrigger who is “at fault” here. The company SHOULD have known that this would be an uber popular promotion, especially after it was promoted by Beat of Hawaii.
Beat of Hawaii has more than 65K “likes” on Facebook. The Ala Moana Hotel has fewer than 2K.
I sincerely hope you continue to follow this and keep us posted.
Thanks for all you do!!
I called the number as suggested on the website for reservations and they said they cannot help me. I have now been trying for FIVE hours !
He offered me regular rate… r u kidding me !!
I also waited for 20 minutes when they said my wait would be two minutes.
I asked for ONE name of someone who booked this $10.00 room and gee, they don’t have that information.
On a positive note, I felt bad for the Agent on the phone..they are really getting the worst of it, so I tried to be nice (- :
Mahalo for all of your comments.
This has been very frustrating for a lot of people, and I’m sure that the Outrigger people are beside themselves trying to get it resolved.
On the subject of websites, there’s nothing inherently wrong with Outrigger’s site. It is rather that websites and booking systems were not intended for this type of flash sale which may have had tens of thousands of people trying to book simultaneously. That plan was in fact the epic fail, rather than the website.
Aloha!
attempted at 2000 EST and was able to reach booking page then each time I entered info it rebooted me to start from scratch – made me wary of entering any CC data – tried again approx 15 minutes later and now unable to get on site. A lesson in how not to succeed in winning friends and customers 🙁
Another update.
First, the link from your original post about this deal no longer works.
Second, the entire Outrigger reservation site now comes up with a “Planned Maintenance” message if you try to make reservations at ANY of their hotels. The message says to contact the company by phone, but the tax deal is not offered through the telephone system. Another PR fail.
Finally, despite assurances from Nancy Daniels, Outrigger has NOT posted a single update on its Facebook page.
Sigh…….
New message popping up.
Online Reservations are Temporarily Unavailable
Our reservation system is undergoing routine maintenance and online booking is temporarily unavailable. Reservation agents are standing by to assist you by phone. Please call:
Toll-Free U.S., Guam & Canada: 1-866-956-4262
Worldwide direct: 303-369-7777
We kindly thank you for your patience and look forward to speaking with you.
Getting this message now.
Online Reservations are Temporarily Unavailable
Says to call but on hold now waiting for a reservation agent
This is the latest message I got:
Online Reservations are Temporarily Unavailable
Our reservation system is undergoing routine maintenance and online booking is temporarily unavailable. Reservation agents are standing by to assist you by phone. Please call:
Toll-Free U.S., Guam & Canada: 1-866-956-4262
Worldwide direct: 303-369-7777
We kindly thank you for your patience and look forward to speaking with you.
I called the Hotel directly at 5pm PT…..they said “LOTS” of rooms are still available, there is NO promo code needed….and to just keep trying. So I said…”Oh okay, I’ll try!” SMH
Could not get on at 10:00a.m. And still can’t. Maybe if they feel bad enough they’ll issue $10.00 rooms to those of us leaving comments here.
When you dream……dream big.
Last time tried 4pm EDT today – still no success. Never saw to enter “promo code”. Is there one? Very frustrating…been trying since yesterday. Sounds like problem has not been resolved.
This is awful. And despite what the PR director said, there has not been a SINGLE update on its Facebook page…
IMO, this is a complete FAIL. There are ways to test sites to see how much traffic it can handle. Outrigger and The Ala Moana Hotel really should have realized that this promotion had the potential to crash its site. And in this day of social media, the bad PR may be exponential…
Been trying to get in as well. Still no luck. Has anyone had any success yet?
Been trying for over 3 hours and still getting “service unavailable”!!! Very frustrating!!!!!!!!!!!
I got service error each time, I waited until 10am this morning been
Online for several hours getting to dates and then it says service error. Frustrating!
I keep trying but every so often it tells me wrong promo code. WTHeck? I called the hotel and they told me the promo code so why can’t I get in?
I got to enter my dates, and it’s hung up here….http://www.outrigger.com/reservations/select-room
And then I go – Lather….Rinse….Repeat!!!
Sadly, this is fun, I’m finding this very challenging and if I, or one of us here gets to take advantage of the deal…..then I’ll be happy 🙂
You load your dates and submit. promt comes up “you’re one step closer to paradise!” as it processes your request and then BOOM!
“Service Unavailable
The service is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.”
still no good; still “service unavailable; please try later”. Have been trying for 2 hours now. This is complete joke;. very unhappy and unimpressed with whole Ala Moana Team. Maybe this is a sign to stay somewhere else……..????
NO luck for me and I have been trying for over 3 hours !
Frustrating and hoping it wasn’t a scam.
What would REALLY help is to be able to see the calendar. Even if the dates were taken by the time we got to requesting them, it still would help A WHOLE BUNCH.
You load your dates and submit. promt comes up “you’re one step closer to paradise!” as it processes your request and then BOOM!
“Service Unavailable
The service is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.”
repeat 12 times……
Ugggghh!!! I’ve been trying. I had family members trying on my behalf too.
I waited anxiously till 10am and finally got connected. I was able to get all the way to entering my personal info and credit information. Then I hit the “Next” button to receive confirmation and for the next 30 minutes, kept getting a “server error” message. A number poped up to call and the outrigger employee on the phone said she could not help me. I asked her to see if there was a confirmed reservation under my name, she checked and said there wasn’t. I checked with my credit card company and nothing had been charged. I finally gave up trying and I just hope I didn’t jeopardize having my credit card info entered. This was indeed a terrible experience
I got as far as choosing my dates and then the service went unavailable. Will keep trying! A great price for a staycation! 🙂
Thanks for this update! Been trying, without any success for almost two hours!
Thanks for the update, I just spent about 40 min. w/ nothing. Might try again. Mahalo!
Wow, really bad, I have been trying to get through for an hour . . . “Service unavailable” . . . this is a great example of how to turn good PR into “BAD PR” !!!
I agree that outrigger does not value thier customers especially those who have the opportunity to come on a moments notice. . Moving on. bye