4 star Italian hotel mistakenly offers 1-cent weekend, will honor the bookings
 

Sat Aug 15, 2:37 am ET

ROME – You had to be quick, but what a deal.

A four-star hotel near Venice mistakenly offered the ultimate low-cost vacation — a romantic weekend in the Italian lagoon city for 1 euro cent.

Not surprisingly, the Crowne Plaza in Quarto D'Altino, 15.5 miles (25 kilometers) from Venice, received bookings for the equivalent of 1,400 room nights on the night the rate was posted on its Web site, the hotel chain acknowledged. And it seems those bookings may be valid.

The hotel first thought the offer was posted by a hacker, sales manager Fulvio Danesin said Friday. But it turned out to be human error at the Atlanta, Georgia, offices of Intercontinental Hotels Group, the hotel's mother company, he said.

The offer was supposed to be for a two-night stay at half price. A night at the 151-room hotel normally costs between euro90 ($128) and euro150 ($214).

The 1-cent rate was up only Sunday night, but that was long enough for travelers to book dates running from October through 2010, Danesin said. The hotel stands to lose euro90,000 ($129,000), he said.

Monica Smith, media relations manager for the hotel group in the U.S. , said Friday that some 228 guests made reservations for the equivalent of 1,400 room nights while the error was on the Web site and that the reservations would be honored.

"Although a pricing error, IHG is committed to honoring the 1-cent rate for guests who have a valid confirmation," Smith said. She added that rooms booked at the low rate "are nontransferable.'

Darn. And that is where I could have been for 4 months this year...

Holy crap! I wish I ran across that.

GREAT move by the hotel, they may be able to wrangle more than that cost in free press and advertising. Also the customers will rave about how great they are.

Damn though, $3.65/year for a great room near Venice.

damn thats crazy

remind me of that best buy usa thread where they sold the TV for $9.99.

I doubt the americans will honour that price mistake.

damn those people are so damn lucky!

wow.. somebody definitely lost their job over that one

*clap clap*
the hotel needs a pat on the back

It's an American hotel chain

i bet they will get shit service for the time they stay there haha

i wish i had came across that

Dont we have a guy on here, that is supposed to roam the WWW and post all the good deals?

I'd give him points for missing this deal!!

Wouldn't the workers have more incentive to give better service? People staying there are paying 1 cent so that $10-$20 tip suddenly doesn't seem like anything when you add the cost of the room.

nice

someone is gonna get fired

Well I'm sure the hotel will be reimbursed from IHG headoffice for all those room nights since it was a mistake from headoffice and not the hotel itself.

Props for honoring the bookings