When Denise Aiyedatiwa purchased a vacation to celebrate her new job, she had no idea where she would be going. That was the point.
The 36-year-old Atlanta resident signed up for a Groupon deal promoting “mystery vacations,” which she heard about through social media. A few days later, she learned the $393 package, which included a $150 solo surcharge and covered her round-trip airfare and hotel, would take her to Las Vegas.
Aiyedatiwa was hoping for somewhere more exotic. The first location she was offered, Orlando, Fla., was a place she used to live. The next option, Washington, D.C., was a city she had recently visited. Las Vegas at least offered new experiences.
Once in Sin City, Aiyedatiwa skipped the casinos—the trip itself was already a gamble. Instead, she paid to see an immersive Backstreet Boys concert at the Sphere and treated herself to a fancy dinner.
“I feel like I was able to make the most out of my trip,” she said.
Thousands of travelers are taking the plunge on such surprise vacations. Buyers say the deals are attractive as travel costs have skyrocketed, and the mystery packages play on Americans’ growing penchant for gambling and taking a chance on the unknown.
Groupon, best known for its deep discounts on local services from meals to manicures, is finding traction with a whole new audience thanks to its blind deals on vacations. Its flagship mystery deal covers flights and a hotel stay for a two-to-seven-night trip, ranging in price from $199 to $299 for a person depending on the departure airport. (The deal requires travelers to buy a minimum of two vouchers, or pay an additional fee if traveling solo.)
Possible destinations range from London and Singapore to Phoenix and Minneapolis. Variations on the offering include beach vacations and cruises.
The promotions have exploded in popularity thanks to social media, particularly TikTok, where users have shared videos detailing their journeys. Mystery Vacations, a U.K.-based online travel agency that coordinates the packages, offers gift cards as a thank you when customers post about their trips online.
How it works
After buying the black-box deal on Groupon, Mystery Vacations sends buyers a form to fill out with their preferred travel dates and departure airports. Once that is submitted, a representative calls within 72 hours to share the destination.
The choice of airports often determines the price: The flagship promotion costs $199 from hubs like Atlanta and Miami, $249 to travel out of Chicago O’Hare and Los Angeles and $299 for departures from Newark, N.J., or Seattle, among others.
Most packages include round-trip airfare and a stay in a hotel rated three stars or higher. The specific flight details and hotel accommodations are confirmed 14 days before departure. Flights are often on budget carriers, with basic-economy fares , which means more charges will apply if travelers want to check a bag or pick a seat.
For people willing to roll the dice on a mystery vacation, flexibility is key. Customers’ preferred dates aren’t guaranteed. Travelers can request alternatives to their assigned booking options, but might need to pay more, according to Mystery Vacations Director Gaurav Jaura .
There are no refunds if someone dislikes their options—they can only get their money back if they request a refund before submitting the initial form to Mystery Vacations.
Destinations are drawn at random based on travelers’ preferred dates and departure airport. For the primary promotion on Groupon, locations are divided into three tiers. Gold-tier trips include seven nights in either Europe or Asia, while silver-tier vacations include four nights in Iceland or tropical locales including the Caribbean and Hawaii.
For every 2,000 vouchers sold, six trips will fall into the gold tier and 12 in silver. Mystery Vacations loses money on those tiers, Jaura said. Everyone else receives bronze-tier getaways that include two nights in a variety of U.S. cities, and Mystery Vacations strives to sweeten the deals when possible, Jaura said.
“If someone’s got two nights, for example, in New York, we might give them one extra night free of charge,” he said. “Or we might put them in a more centrally located hotel.”
Rolling the dice
Brooke Plack , a 41-year-old entrepreneur from Arkansas, scored a silver-tier vacation and is heading to the Dominican Republic this month with a friend.
“I’m normally Type A, so to give the reins up has been a little bit freeing,” she said.
Plack credits her luck to choosing to fly out of a major airport. She also emailed Mystery Vacations to say that she would be willing to produce social-media content about her trip.
The travel agency offered the pair $50 Amazon gift cards to post online about their experience. Plack made her first-ever TikTok to celebrate landing the Dominican escape—the video has received over 100,000 likes and was saved more than 17,000 times.
“I have so many friends that are wanting to do this, but they’re basically waiting to make sure I don’t die first,” she said.
Others who are well traveled aren’t always as thrilled. Tammy Wales, a travel agent from Ringgold, Ga., said she gambled on a mystery trip for research purposes: “I’m always looking for the best deals.”
She bought one domestic Groupon package for a July trip with her daughter, who is about to start college. They were sent to Orlando, a place they had been to many times.
“I’m not a theme-park person at all,” Wales said. “So we just pretended like none of that was there.”
Instead, the pair had fun shopping and took a scenic boat tour in nearby Winter Park, Fla. Wales was somewhat disappointed by the motel-like resort they were assigned, but added, “it wasn’t the worst place.”
“We were happy that it was at least in a warm location so we could lay out by the pool,” she said.
