I was looking for a good all inclusive deal on Hotwire tonight when I started noticing many of the listings say "only three trips left at this price".

Seems reasonable enough, but it had the same number three on pretty much all of the listings.

That no longer seems reasonable.  There must be a few packages that have 4,10 or 15 trips left at that price, right?

Not too hard to smell a sales gimmick in this case.  I'm sure Hotwire saw the success of Groupon and so they tried to copy their sales approach.

Reminds me of the Sandals and Beaches countdown clock that just resets when it hits zero.

It is true that when I first saw "only three left", I was a little more anxious to jump on the deal. 

People use sales gimmicks because they work.

However, when I went to a sales page on Hotwire that listed multiple deals and most of them had only three left, I no longer felt like I needed to hurry up and secure the deal.

I felt like someone was using a sales gimmick to take advantage of me.