Red letter days a bad idea?

stationhouse26

I am currently thinking red letter day gifts are a very bad idea as a gift be interested to hear what others think.

I was fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to get two as Birthday presents recently.

The first was a one night luxury stay at Champneys (value £500) lovely just what we wanted and we were extremely grateful for. However, we would like to add another night and make it a two night stay paying the extra cost of course, surely that would not be difficult?
However on speaking to Champneys they cannot do anything as it a red letter day & it has to be booked through them, Red Letter days do not offer a two night break so they can't do anything!
To make things even worse we have had an offer through direct from Champneys (we have stayed there before) of a two night luxury stay for £500.

The second was a three car supercar blast which when i tried to book at the only reasonably close circuit only has a couple of mid week dates available late autumn & if you don't book now they close for the winter and the voucher becomes invalid plus again the vouchers are now being heavily discounted on the red letter day web site and are cheaper and more flexible if you book direct with the service provider.

In my opinion if you want to give someone a particular gift you are much better off purchasing the vouchers direct from the service provider you will likely as not get a better deal and have more flexibility when it comes to booking and offers.

Red letter days just seems to be a very inflexible middle man creaming off some profit from service providers (I am a bit annoyed as I currently type this).

They are probably ok for the cheaper options but I wouldn't recommend anyone buys any expensive days out on them.

vikingaero

I agree about booking direct.

RLD will take a cut as will the retailer if you bought the pack instore. For a lot of leisure companies it's about filling the quiet times and gaining repeat custom.

photome

Why can't you book one night with RLD and one night direct, or even add 2 nights with your offer


Agree better to get vouchers from th companies direct

hcb42

Agree with above, as there are two different payment methods involved all you have to do is book second day directly, and use voucher for first......

the upside to voucher companies is if someone buys you what you dont want, you can flip it for something you do. Being in the hotel game, I always advocate booking direct (gift vouchers are worth less to the receiving business despite their ticket price due to the very high commissions these companies charge) however that also limits choice...so unless you really know your recipient then RLD and companies of that nature might make sense.