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De Vere’s £29 offer – I wouldn’t bother

I received a card in the post from DeVere Venues today, pushing an offer for stays throughout May, from just £29 per room per night.   There are 25 hotels listed on the card. Fantastic, I thought – I’ll go and book one.   I went on to the website and, lo and behold, it returned a rate of £104 (room only) for my chosen night.   OK… I’ll pick a day when I know this hotel (Daresbury Park) is quiet (Sunday).   (I have previously stayed there on two occasions taking advantage of Sunday promotions.)    That revised search produced a rate of £84, still far removed from the “from just £29” promotion.   So… I decided to telephone and find out which hotels were available at this rate.   Debbie, the lady I spoke to on reservations, couldn’t tell me.   She said she had the same search facility as me available to her, and that she’d simply have to enter every hotel for every date in order to find out.  As the conversation went on, however, I was  told that in fact only  three hotels had the £29 rate (Staverton Park, Harben and Uplands), yet again she couldn’t tell me for which dates.   For me, a promotion like this has the opposite effect to that which I assume is intended.   I find it misleading to get a list of 25 hotels with a “from £29 per room, per night” promotion that only applies to three of them. What do you think?

Paul Johnson

Paul Johnson is Editor of A Luxury Travel Blog and has worked in the travel industry for more than 30 years. He is Winner of the Innovations in Travel ‘Best Travel Influencer’ Award from WIRED magazine. In addition to other awards, the blog has also been voted “one of the world’s best travel blogs” and “best for luxury” by The Daily Telegraph.

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2 Comments

  1. I fully agree….it is very misleading! The industry needs to stop this kind of false advertising and when found out should be fully exposed – as per your article!

    I hope other bloggers pick up on this and run with it.

    DeVere should be ashamed of themselves.

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