Going, Going, Gone! Bidding Luxury Vacations for a Buck

You won't hear the auctioneer's gavel drop, but if your winning bid is accepted, you could find yourself in luxury holiday digs in the US, Europe, Morocco, or wherever luxury properties are found and coveted.

Winning bid? One dollar.

And you won't even know where the place is until the auction is over, although there'll be plenty of visual and text clues to tease you along in the right direction.

It's a brilliant social networking marketing strategy by LuxuryLink because the sleuthing and puzzle-solving have created a vibrant, private on-line community of energized participants pooling information about travel in general, and sharing clues about the "mystery destination."

Diane McDavitt, president of LL, believes that anonymous bidding (shades of Google’s ad words) is “a growing trend in the travel space.”

Here's how it works.
LuxuryLink.com offers mystery auctions on their site, high-end vacations to hot spots around the world, with a starting bid of just $1.00, increasing in increments of a dollar.

Then the company randomly picks one bidder a month for the next three months and awards them the luxury package -- for a buck, regardless of what their bid actually was, or what the highest bid actually was, or by whom.

From NMT Images

So, the minimum bid for a mystery, elegant African destination for three nights (including breakfasts) for two starts at $56.00 with 3 days, 21 hours and 39 minutes left to go.

Regardless of how high the bid goes, I could be one of the lucky mystery winners, and get the luxury vacation for only a $1.00.

Curious, I listened in briefly to the 1000-member community as they shared clues, puzzled out the destination and offered useful insights about cameras, favorite travel stories, etiquette tips-all robust interactions about common travel experiences and future topics.

The company was listening in too of course, gathering useful data and brand information.

You must register to participate, and that’s how LuxuryLink.com and sister site FamilyGetaway.com  build their on line community.

There are vacations deals and other kinds of auctions not part of the "mystery auction” that go for up to 65% less than the retail cost.

Regardless, giving away a luxury destination in exchange for an active, loyal community of customers is great ROI. And it's fun