I had just finished writing a brief story this morning about the latest travel slowdown - UK visits abroad down by six per cent in the last three months of 2008 - when I spotted the release from Lastminute.com...

"Online travel and leisure retailer lastminute.com is offering more than 3000 hotel rooms in the UK and Europe for just £10 on Thursday 12 February from 10 am," it shouted.

By now, it was 11.30am - had I missed the boat?

The home page of the UK hotel promotion was clear enough - WIGIG (When it's gone, it's gone) is the catchphrase and when I clicked on the first box for a "modern deluxe hotel with great city location - 4* - London" I got the following message:

"You know a good deal when you see one – this hotel is so popular it's just sold out. But don’t give up yet! There are more great hotels below so please try again....."

So I did. 11.40am and I was calculating that a night away in Brighton was just what was needed - racing through the process I got to the booking page when I got the message....

"You know a good deal when you see one – this hotel is so popular it's just sold out. But don’t give up yet! There are more great hotels below so please try again....."

It was only now that it dawned on me: none of these hotels are named. There's a link at the top of each box that says Top Secret Hotel - which when clicked through reads:

Shhh, these rates are so low that our hotel partners don't want to put their names to them. In order for use to bring you these exclusive deals the name of the hotel will be hidden from you until your booking is complete.

But I persisted.11.45am and I was in, booking a Sunday night in "the Chiltern countryside" at a Top Secret hotel "set in acres of countryside and landscaped gardens." It was "posh" and I would feel "instantly relaxed."

Result! And now, to find out the Secret Santa hotel, the posh one with the exclusive deal, the one my wife would be eternally grateful to me for booking for a lovely Sunday night in the Cotswolds.

And the booking confirmation reads: Uplands, Four Ashes Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

This didn't sound terribly Posh. Or Exclusive. And having logged onto the Tripadvisor reviews, I was not Instantly Relaxed.

"The rooms were the shabbiest and most dated I have ever stayed in. I felt that I droppped into some time warp and was back in the 70s. The carpet looked so unpleasant I was tempted to keep my shoes on for the entire visit," writes Luluwater from Northwich.

GGDentist of Sussex was even more scathing. My OH booked a double room, after climbing miles up narrow staircases we came to room that you'd have a struggle swinging a rat in, never mind a cat. I have never seen such a small 'double' bed. OK him and I are a couple of heffers, but Posh Spice and Frankie Dettori would have had trouble squeezing into it!!!...

Oh, oh.

But the worse thing about My Horrible Mistake was that this rate was far from exclusive - many had paid cheap deals.

Guests from Edinburgh and Notts revealed they paid £39.50 for B&B through Laterooms.com.

Many other guests had also stayed - on a £10 deal. Gemma from Bolton and GuitarGaz from Shropshire both paid a tenner through the De Vere hotel website, owners of Uplands.

So, in essence, I have paid the same price I could have obtained through the hotel's own website, for a place that some would have down as perhaps not the best to stay in the Chilterns.

In short, I feel a little bit cheated. A bit mugged. What could have been a fun promotion has turned out a bit stale.

So I (we) probably won't be going to Uplands. And I won't bother asking Lastminute for the money back. As the other acronym for WIGIG spells out - What I Got, I Got.

Did you get lucky with this sale? Or other similar blind sales? Or is your experience not the best either? Let us know on the comment form below

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