The Crowne Plaza’s Pricing Mistake

Pricing is part of the customer promise.
For X dollars,
the customer is promised to received
Y product.

Pricing errors happen.
Normally, the company tries to wiggle out
of honoring the incorrectly advertised pricing.
They break their promise.
This has the customer doubting
all other promises.
It erodes trust.

The rare time, however,
a company will stand by their promise,
even if it,
as was the case with
the Crowne Plaza’s one cent rooms in Venice,
costs them $127,000 (U.S.).
This does the opposite.
It builds trust.
I know if I book with the Crowne Plaza,
they won’t give my room away
(as happens with other hotels)
or switch rates at the last minute.
They keep their word.

This is rare.
So rare that when a company does it,
it makes international news.

Published
Categorized as Marketing