Comments on: Groupon Getaways aren’t the deal they seem to be

By: juju

juju — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:21:28 +0000

I haven’t seen a deal on groupon yet all the prices are the same as the business regular prices or specials minus the restrictions and availability

By: Mike Webb

Mike Webb — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 05:39:25 +0000

I had the misfortune of using Groupon. Twice. The first time, it was for a home cleaning from a company that actually didn’t exist. They answered no phone calls or emails. The second was for a cruise that I was unable to take because of fine print restrictions. They still took my money in both cases. Some fundamentals do not change, if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

By: bill

bill — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 16:31:27 +0000

you must work for those crooks

By: JvH.AnalyticZ - Judith

JvH.AnalyticZ - Judith — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 08:13:27 +0000

When looking at this from a Hotel point-of-View it is clear that the Importance of collaboration between Revenue Management and Sales is Key in this case. True; Revenue Managers will Optimize their Revenues no matter what and will not allow a ‘Groupon’(or any other for that matter) price value stay at their premium periods; however they also have the best insight of when these guests will be most likely to get a ‘Yes’ to their stay request. Sales might opt for Groupon participation to obtain the vast amount of publicity that comes with it. And whilst safeguarding your Image and ‘Value’ in a guest’s eyes is important Groupon can be used as a tool to reach those guests you rely on in specific periods. My suggestion would be to offer a deal to be redeemed in a short time- period (provided Groupon allows this) rather than for example 3 months or a whole season. This will increase the times you can say ‘Yes’ to a Guest, thus increase Guest satisfaction on the special and possibly lead to a returning Guest.

By: Plaid Giraffe

Plaid Giraffe — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 02:26:34 +0000

Yes, it’s extremely important to read the fine print. I’ve gotten some great deals on Groupon, but have passed on most of their offerings after reading closely. Did you know you can get a 6.4% cash rebate for your Groupon purchases if you click thru from http://www.myfrugalfriend.com? Makes the deals even sweeter!

By: Shawn J. Roberts

Shawn J. Roberts — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:28:22 +0000

I disagree that Mr. Agrawal is “product strategist and consultant who has been covering Groupon intensively since its IPO was announced.” Mr. Agrawal is a on mission to destroy Groupon. He may be right to point out the many flaws he perceives in Groupon. However, he should not be confused with an analyst or writer who is simply “covering” the company.

By: Soda

Soda — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:24:05 +0000

fine print? who cares!

By: MikeP

MikeP — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 12:53:43 +0000

Gotta read the fine print!

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 11:32:25 +0000

It is worse than that. I am always leary of travel deals — for example, two for one airline tickets where the one you buy must be undiscounted coach so that it costs twice that of a “normal” ticket.

So I saw a hotel deal that sounded interesting and I went to check it out. I found two things. First, the reviews on a travel site were full of complaints, such as ‘the pictures shown aren’t representative of the property’. Second, the discounted currently available price on a regular travel site was a few dollars less than Groupon. Yes, the stated Groupon discount was actually off the rack room price, not the actual selling price.

I unsubscribed from the travel newsletter.

By: Ronald stepp

Ronald stepp — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 10:54:32 +0000

Only so much real estate on a page? Is she freaking kidding? Has she ever scrolled down or used the page scroll bar? Talk about the weakest excuse in the history of flim flam men.