RedFlagDeals The Westin Nova Scotian: Pay What You Want March-Break Promotion (Halifax) The Westin Nova Scotian: Pay What You Want March-Break Promotion (Halifax)
get this dealthis offer is expired
Want to get away this March break? Book your stay at The Westin Nova Scotian and you can pay what you want when checking out.
This offer is valid on one- or two-night stays only, between March 13-19, 2011. When you reserve your stay, you will be required to provide a credit card or cash deposit to guarantee your booking. Once your stay is complete, you will be given a Pay What You Want questionnaire and interviewed by hotel staff to determine how much you are willing to pay for your stay. This interview process may be filmed.
This special March Break deal cannot be combined with other offers or promotions and is not eligible for Starpoints. For more information on The Westin Nova Scotian, or to book your Pay What You Want stay, visit Westin.com.
This offer is valid on one- or two-night stays only, between March 13-19, 2011. When you reserve your stay, you will be required to provide a credit card or cash deposit to guarantee your booking. Once your stay is complete, you will be given a Pay What You Want questionnaire and interviewed by hotel staff to determine how much you are willing to pay for your stay. This interview process may be filmed.
This special March Break deal cannot be combined with other offers or promotions and is not eligible for Starpoints. For more information on The Westin Nova Scotian, or to book your Pay What You Want stay, visit Westin.com.
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View allI just clicked to read the article off the chronicle herald website and they got rid of the sentence mentioning Lower Sackville deal-hunters. It was kind of a shot against us Sackville People. Then I realized I am a deal hunter, from Sackville, on RFD right now but I'm not that cheap.
Too Funny.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1233459.html
The folks at the Westin Nova Scotian hotel in Halifax have been taking it on the chin this week as some budget-minded travellers have scooped up rooms for free in a March Break pay-what-you-want promotion.
"Zero. Absolutely zero. This is what some people have offered to pay," manager Guido Kerpel said Wednesday about the unusual marketing effort.
About 60 of the hotel’s 310 rooms were set aside for the promotion, which coincided with the one-week holiday for most school systems outside Halifax Regional Municipality. Schools in metro Halifax closed for two weeks during the Canada Games last month.
The pay-what-you-want promotion was designed to raise the hotel’s profile in communities across the province, but a significant number of deal-hunters have come from suburban Lower Sackville.
Participating guests can book two nights through the promotion, take part in a videotaped exit survey when they leave, and pay what they want.
At the midway point in the provincial school break, most of the rooms have been scooped up and most people have offered to pay about $75 per night after participating in the survey, Kerpel said. The rooms would normally go for about $150.
But some people in the video survey put on their best poker face for the camera and said the value they attached to their two-night stay at the vintage hotel in the heart of the city was: Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zero.
"Perhaps some people lack an appreciation of the pride that staff and management at a major hotel have in their property," Kerpel said.
"It is upsetting to hear from some people we are worth nothing."
Kerpel estimated Wednesday that only a handful of guests had departed without paying a cent but a final tally will not be available until the promotion ends Saturday.
Of course, the folks at the 80-year-old Westin Nova Scotian were expecting some tightwads but they proceeded with the pay-what-you-want promotion anyway, knowing that many other guests would pay a fair, if discounted, amount.
"We wanted to create some awareness about the hotel and the amenities it offers for visiting families, including a terrific location, a pool and video gaming room," Kerpel said.
He said the hotel’s staff would assess the marketing experiment after it’s over and determine whether it is worth repeating.
When a story about the March Break promotion appeared in The Chronicle Herald on March 9, some readers of the ChronicleHerald.ca website posted some disparaging comments about the hotel and its age.
Kerpel said he did not want get into specifics, but the thrust of some negative remarks related to the hotel’s inability to compete against Caribbean resorts.
"People should remember, the Westin Nova Scotian is one of the great, vintage Canadian railway hotels, on par with the Royal York (in Toronto)," Kerpel said.
"Obviously, we are not brand new and do not offer a host of modern features. This is an 80-year-old building."
The manager said people forget all too easily that the wrecking ball was about to fall on the hotel, adjacent to the Halifax Via Rail station, when the current owners stepped in to gamble that they could give the old building a second lease on life.
"It’s unfortunate some people would make unfavourable comments about the age of our hotel when so many other people are fighting to preserve the heritage buildings that contribute to the character of our community," he said.
( bpower@herald.ca)
was packed when we were there.. comicon lol
You should be able to just check-out then go online within 24-48hrs and pay then whatever....
i've stayed there 5 or 6 times using priceline and never spent more then 50 US, so I'd have no problem lowballing them
To me it sounds more like you may end up on television giving a testimonial. read the small print.
Interesting...other than that looks like a great deal!