wheres the scam in this?

tentickles666

my friend has just paid £30 or so to get free hotel accomodation in a list of hotels all she has to do is pay for breakfast and evening meals.

although it was only £30 my scam alarm started to ring so wanted to check on here.....

Mrs_B_12

Find out the name of the scheme and Google it would be the fastest way to find out about it and if others are complaining elsewhere or on here.

Butlers1982

no scam its true but you pay about £15 per person for breakfast PLUS drinks(which are v v expensive) so you dont really save that much as if you were to pay for the room it would be atleast £40.

Thats how the recoup the price of the room being "free". If you think about it the room is going to be empty and no food is going to be eaten. BUT if they can give you the room for "free" and MAKE you pay for meals, it in effect pays for itself.

How many times do you stop at a hotel and not have food? (me? I never eat in hotels!)

advent1122

How is paying £30 getting free hotel accomodation?

RadoJo

Definitely a scam - I was told I had 'won' vouchers for a free hotal break anywhere in the UK. I was naturally sceptical, and asked for more detail - not only did I have to eat (or at least pay for) two meals a day in the restaurant, there was actually a minimum spend on the meals so we couldn't even have got away with ordering the cheapest thing!

Butlers1982

Definitely a scam

Why. . ? . .

trisontana

advent1122 wrote: »

How is paying £30 getting free hotel accomodation?

This is a one-off fee. You don't have to pay it each time you book a hotel.

RadoJo

You are right Al - I retract my 'scam' comment, as all the information is available, it is just made to look liek you are getting a better deal than they are. As you say, they charge standard rates, it just seems that the kind of hotels which participate in such schemes tend to be relatively expensive and paying for two meals can easily negate any savings on the room itself.

In most cases it would probably be possible to get a room elsewhere for less than the cost of the meals you have to buy, plus you aren't tied to the hotels schedule for eating! However, if you would tend to eat breakfast and dinner in a hotel anyway, and would choose a more expensive establishement, then there's no reason why you shouldn't be happy with the deal - I just don't think that this is how they put it to people and many are disappointed!

tentickles666

shes already paid for it but im quite sure i could get any of her 'deals' cheaper on lastminute or similar site!

Elle00

I believe it's a way for hotels to occupy their otherwise empty rooms. So it will probably be relatively short notice or off-peak times she's offered. I don't believe it's a scam. It's no different to how The Sun manage to offer holidays at £9.50 per person every year and I went on one of those myself this year! As others have said, they make the money back on dinner and drinks etc. Better to have people staying in all the rooms and spending money rather than half occupancy.

You have a point about lastminute.com but remember not everyone is on the WWW just yet so some of this will be down to phone and fax inquiries from the marketing agency.