Off & Away

First off, Off and Away is not a scam. It's real, but you have to know what you're getting into. Be prepared to spend a lot in bids, but make sure you can use those bids for a hotel room.

I've dabbled many times in auctions - lost $5 here and there, and turned away. There are two auctions that I got serious about, and that was because I knew if I lost, I could still use the bid money I lost to book a room at a regular rate. The first auction I won. I spent about $90 for two nights in a fancy hotel. Great.

The second time was not successful, and I'm still a little peeved about the whole situation. I decided to invest in a 5 night/6 day vacation in Mexico. I put aside time during the day, and plenty of money for bids. After 7 hours, it finally came down to me and one other bidder. We were going back and forth, and as I pressed by bid button, I suddenly got a spinning circle...

And nothing. And then the auction closed. I had lost, even though I pressed that button about 3 seconds before the auction ended. My internet connection was fine. I made sure everything was fast and connected, and checked to see if there was any failure on my part. NONE. I called Off and Away, and they said the bid came in. 09 seconds after, and that sometimes blips like that happen.

That certainly soured my entire experience, and at this point, I'm swearing off the site. Good riddance.

Helpfu people is there in in easemytrip amazing service I am having nowadays in easemytrip and going to use this app only

The problem with the site is that the estimate values of the rooms are grossly overstated. Go directly to the hotel you are interested in and try to see how much the same room is for the time you want to travel. It will be several hundred dollars less ( in one case, it was half the listed value on offandaway.com). The website states that they take the highest possible value of the room at the most unavailable (i. E. expensive) time of the year. Still... it seems like a gross misrepresentation to me.

I think that the other people that reviewed the site don't fully understand the model and are giving the site a bad rap. While this seems like just another penny auction site (but for travel), the reality is that consumers that do not win the auction have the option to reuse their spent bids. In the Offandaway model, lost bids are translated to credits that users can use to select from a broader range of hotel rooms at standard Internet rates. This means that if you are going to New York City, you can take a swing to try and stay at a 5 star hotel; if that doesn't work out, you can reuse that credit through Offandaway to find the hotel room that you would have stayed in anyway... you don't lose any money. By giving you this opportunity to trade up, Offandaway gets the benefit of an affiliate fee for the hotel room you do book (or the unspent credit if you choose not to book). Every consumer can be a winner on this site... you just need to understand the rules before you begin to use the site.

This site is great. The only aggravating thing is when someone new gets on and drives the bid up before it gets down to the last 15 seconds, but their customer service is great and they knock themselves out to take care of you. Also, whatever bids you use can be applied to other rooms, and they send email alerts so you don't waste them.

What customer demographic has 2++ hours to waste watching an auction trickle up one penny at a time, with up to 15 seconds between bids? Your business model may attract some VC funding, but your auction experience is boring and frustrating to everyone but the winner. You must redesign the bidding process to effectively shorten total auction times to less than an hour, If you don't you will continue to get a fair number of one time customers, a few supportive auction winners, but legions of frustrated detractors. As your site awareness grows your detractors base will grow much fast than your supporters base.

I agree with Scooter in that people don't understand this site fully.

I like the design and the fact there is a lot of venture capital in this site makes me feel they aren't some fly-by-night outfit. Haven't won on there though, yet :)

Off and Away is simply an online GAMBLING SITE without any disclaimer to notice to its GAMBLERS. People are losing THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS on this site like any other GAMBLING SITE except that there is NO REGULATION on this site. I personally believe they should be persecuted.

I have never won an auction at offandaway.com, but each time I have booked a room with the credits that resulted from my bids, and both rooms were excellent and well priced - one at the Crescent in SF for about $150 last November which was cheaper than the Expedia rate at the time, and the other for the Hotel Del Sol for a similar price this summer. I agree with the previous poster that mentioned this is not the site for you unless you are planning to travel anyways - I just like using Offandaway because I get that little risktaking moment, before I actually book the room I was likely going to book anyways, at a price below or close to what I was going to pay.

I joined this site and have been carefully watching. Yes, this seems like a good deal... at first. Then, when you acually sit down and watch one single auction, you notice the scam. Here's how it goes.

You bid (only a penny at a time (which cost you a dollar at a time)
You watch other bidders (and get in the moment of bidding)
When the auction is close to "end", since there are ALWAYS multiple bidders, it goes into the "hot zone" (which is the last 2 minutes of the auction). This hot zone can last for hours (I have seen the same auction "hot zone" last for over 24 hours! Just think about it. For instance, if an auction goes for $124.57, then offandaway has made $12,457 on "penny bids" just from the bidding process. They make BIG revenue just on this! Also, they send you emails, "reminding" you that the auction is "going into the hot zone" at a certain time (which is usually HOURS after it has technically already been in the hot zone. Also, the "book now" prices aren't that great of deals. They are standard "good deal" prices that you can get through other ways and sites. I have saved emails, print screens, and auction information. I am not a gambler, and typically don't fall for these scams, but since the original investors seemed credible, I tried it out. Apparently, I ended up falling for a scam.

Travel and penny auction scam all rolled up into one website. It seemed like someone thought."what else besides ipads can we sell to unsuspecting consumer in a penny auction... how about a vacation" and now we have offandaway. Yet another penny auction / gambling site.

Offandawy misrepresented itself on the lowest price guarantee. I used the Marriott Rewards website and I was quoted several lower prices by being a senior citizen, a union member, government worker and AAA member. But Offandaway refused to honor the price matching guarantee.
A. I ended up paying a higher rate for staying in my regular frequent reward hotel.
B. I usually get a free upgrade because I am a frequent stay customer, but by using Offandaway, I had to pay for my upgrade,.
C. The book now credits are only good for 30 days, and if you book for the 5-star luxury hotel, you are paying a much higher retail price than priceline.com. If you bid on priceline.com for a 5 star hotel, you are guaranteed to get a 5 star hotel with the lowest price. But you are not getting the lowest rate by using the book now credit from Offandaway. I believe most of the book now credits after bidding would be lost by the bidders because there is a short 30 days time limitation, no cancellation and no refund
Policy.

I think the people running this site are laughing all the way to the bank! If anyone is winning those auctions, I think it is the people who work at off and away! I gave it a chance. The person who is promoting the site on here is likely one of staff. Anyway, I admit that I am gullible. I bought 200 bids... what a waste of money! I spent two hours of my time, trying to win this one auction. When the auction was over, I spent 70 bids on it! 50 were FREE bids that I got from recruiting others (which I have since informed that this is a scam). At the end of the two hours of bidding, some guy named "John K" won... with ONE BID! YEAH RIGHT! I don't think so! I'm sorry but I just can't believe that with my diligence... and the diligence of others who were bidding as furiously as I was, that one of them didnt win... that out of a GRAND TOTAL of 2320 bids on that action that ONE PERSON WITH ONE BID at the very tail end WON the auction! That is just TOO much to swallow! Yes, I can use my "credit" towards hotel stays that I could have gotten a better deal elsewhere on, but THAT is not the big draw to the site! So, you CAN'T say that it is NOT a scam, just because you get the chance to book your hotel through them! BIG deal! The auctions just guarantee that you WILL book with them with your "leftover credits" or lose your money! But that is not why people go to the site! They go there to win one of these fantastic suites! But the auction is a set up... so it IS a SCAM! DON'T GO THERE! I've bid on about 5 auctions and won NONE of them and all of them have seemed fishy!

I recently came across Offandaway.com. I've been having tons of fun, even though I have never won.

This travel site CAN be fun IF you just do two things before you begin bidding:

1st: If you want to have fun, you ABSOLUTELY need to be someone who is PLANNING TO TRAVEL. In that way, if you lose, the money is not lost, since you can "recycle" the used bid money to book your next vacation through Offandaway, anyway.

I told myself, "Hey, I'm going to be using the used bid money to book a trip anyway, so I might as well see if I can win a bonus trip!" Well... I lost 3x in a row, and I laughed when I lost. AGAIN, THE MONEY IS NOT LOST IF YOU INTEND TO TRAVEL WITH IT ANYWAY. I will be using my recycled bid credits to book at trip to Tahoe in the next few days.

2nd: Read the auction rules! I spent at least 5-minutes reading through the auction rules, because I was initially skeptical. Offandaway is definitely not a scam. They are a travel agency using auctions to bring in customers. THAT IS WHY YOUR USED BIDS CAN BE USED TO BOOK TRIPS!

Again, look through Offandaway and plan your vacation first. If you're going to book a trip anyway, you can't really lose!