I actually think you are right on my concern is less that they spent the money, but how and how well was it executed. I think it was poorly executed on. I wish I were the agency or development firm because I would have milked this for all it was worth.
I am dying to know. I think the poor execution on launch is what shocks me the most I can think of several scenarios where millions would be spent on a site redesign and launch one would include a larger marketing budget for ad placement, etc.
But I think given the old site was already integrated into their booking systems we are giving them too much benefit of the doubt. This was clearly an over payment in my opinion.
I think you miss the point a bit. It was a redesign. The had internal and external datasources that were used in the recreation. The thing I can tell you from being in house at a company whose core competency is not web development or design that regular over spend occurs less because of the details and more because of operational ignorance and agency selection. It is rarely because the site is so complex or special.
I would expect some expense for the legacy integration, but I believe that 18 million is way to much and given the fact that the site launched with so many issues it seems even if it were a steal it was too much.