"Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday." Is It All Just a Big Scam?
Are these deals really deals? (Photo: Thinkstock)
It was a Black Friday deal that seemed too good to be true — and for many consumers, it was. HotelTonight was advertising $7 hotel specials. Sure, there were the usual caveats: “Act fast! These deals will go faster than that coveted last slice of Mom’s pumpkin pie. If you see one you like, snag it… before someone else does.”
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And sure, there were some happy consumers, like Sara Sylvan, who boasted on the HotelTonight’s Facebook page that she got a room:
But HotelTonight’s limited supply got snapped in under six-and-a-half minutes, according to a representative from HotelTonight, leaving many travelers without a $7 room — and angry.
On Facebook, Breeann Malone complained that rooms were gone by 7:01 a.m.:
On Twitter, a user named April was so upset that she deleted the app:
Paul Brady posted a screenshot of a hotel in New York, where the $7 deals were already gone at 7 a.m., replaced by $849 rooms:
Tis the season, indeed.
Like many consumers, I was bombarded by the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, some of which weren’t really deals at all. TODAY ONLY! Save up to 25% on Disney Parks Authentic Gifts! (Funny, the Disney store had sent me a friends-and-family deal earlier in the month, also for 25 percent off.)
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And the deals came with the fine print. Orbitz offered a sweet promotion: use Visa Checkout to pay, and you’ll receive a $100 discount on an Orbitz hotel stay completed between now and June 30, 2015. On ThePointsGuy.com, joeypore revealed: “The Orbitz promo is tricky, but definitely worth it. Note you still pay taxes and fees on the FULL rate. I found a hotel for $109, ended up paying $28 out of pocket.”
And lo and behold, the Orbitz promotion, which went live at 11 a.m. EST sold out in less than two hours.
On Facebook, we saw an exchange between a woman who works at a jewelry store and another woman whose children work at a mall, talking about how shops increase prices, just to make the deals seem better:
And yet, Americans were out in droves on Black Friday and glued to their computer screens for Cyber Monday. But it left us scratching our heads and wondering, Were these really bargains?
“I don’t think that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are scams; they’re not relevant to travel, and they’re just not bargains,” Mark Ellwood, author of Bargain Fever: How to Shop in a Discounted World, told Yahoo Travel. "I was fascinated that there were some specific travel deals today. I bought a flight, but I was aware that the flight in January was no cheaper than it will be in a week’s time.”
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Ellwood described the deals out there right now as “an inventory dump —but those deals are going to be sticking around for quite some time.”
In fact, Ellwood says that you’re likely to a better deal if you pick up the phone. “People have gotten very lazy about hotels when it comes to booking. They go online to book. But nothing beats a phone call.”
And the trick is to call and ask for “B.A.R.,” which stands for best available rate. “That is the industry lingo for the cheapest they can charge,” says Ellwood. “Don’t rely on a computer.”
WATCH: Is Cyber Monday Just a Marketing Ploy?
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