Lastminute.com widens Top Secret offering

The Top Secret hotels model offers unnamed four and five-star hotels to consumers at three-star prices, providing up to 45% off the price of four and five-star accommodation.

The name of the hotel is revealed to customers once their booking has been completed.

Lastminute.com is now extending the Top Secret proposition to restaurants, offering a table at a Michelin-star restaurant for less than £30. Other deals include tickets for the best three seating bands at musicals for £35 or a West End play for £27.50, and 10% off the price of car hire.

All the restaurant names, seat allocations and car firms will be revealed after booking has been completed.

Matthew Crummack, president of lastminute.com, told Marketing: "What people are getting when buying into Top Secret is value. Our role this year is to explain and reassure customers that they are receiving a quality product at a great price.

"It is in the interest of hotel partners to give us good rates, as so much of their booking comes from lastminute.com, and the reason our deals are sustainable is because it gives the supplier something of value, such as theatres filling seats.

Crummack said that the extension of the Top Secret position was part of the brand getting back to its core proposition as a "last-minute" offering.

The brand recently appointed agency Adam & Eve to develop a new marketing campaign for Lastminute.com. Crummack said: "We want to ensure that we are going back to re-working the personality of the brand, to its last-minuteness."

Follow Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith on Twitter @LoullaMae_ES

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk