Abigail Klein Leichman
February 29, 2016

In honor of the leap year, known as a “pregnant year” (shana meuberet) in Hebrew, Jerusalem’s Hotel Yehuda is offering a prize that many parents-to-be might find irresistible.

The first two couples who book a romantic stay on February 29 and can later prove they conceived that night will be eligible to hold the baby’s circumcision/baby-naming ceremony, bar/bat mitzvah and wedding at the hotel without charge (for up to 100 guests each).

The campaign, dubbed “The Kids are on Our Tab,” is an unorthodox way of increasing awareness of the two-year-old hotel, says Yossi Tzarfati, chief creative officer at twentythree, the creative agency for Hotel Yehuda.

Tzarfati tells ISRAEL21c that the hotel’s booking center has taken more than 1,500 phone calls related to the offer. “We are just over 70 percent booked for now,” he reported on February 22.

One commenter on the hotel’s Facebook page wanted to know: “Wait, if I take part in the offer, can I still get the reward if I complain about the noise the other couples are making?”

The conditions of the prize stipulate that if the pregnancy produces twins or triplets, the parents are nevertheless entitled to three events only.