ADVERTS for three hotel chains and Booking.com have been banned after misleading consumers about the number of rooms available at the lowest prices.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said Travelodge, Hilton, Accor and travel site Booking.com used “from” prices when advertising hotel rooms, which overstated how many were available at this rate.
Sign up for the newsletter
Thank you!
Booking.com and three hotel chains have had their adverts banned for being misleading
Only a small proportion of rooms were available at the advertised prices on several dates, so the ASA said the adverts were misleading and banned all four.
In an ad on May 6, Booking.com said: “Places to stay in Sheffield – Best Price Guarantee”, and further text read “easyHotel Sheffield City Centre From £28”.
Booking.com said the dates and prices were dynamically chosen by Google from data it provided, so they could vary for each user and search.
It believes the information in the ad was accurate and not misleading.
BILL BLOW
TalkTalk to hike bills for millions of broadband customers by £48 a year
XMAS WINNER
I got £100 of Tesco food for £4.14 with cashpot that YOU’VE forgotten about
However, the watchdog said data provided by Booking.com showed that in May seven bookings were made at the easyHotel Sheffield for the advertised price.
But it did not receive any other information from Booking.com, such as the number of dates on which rooms were available for just £28.
It said this did not enable it to make an adequate assessment of the proportion of rooms at the hotel that were available at the advertised price.
Therefore it said the information provided was not sufficient to substantiate the claim “from £28”.
The ASA also found that although Accor advertised £27 rooms at its Ibis Budget Birmingham Centre, they were only available for a night’s stay on July 30.
Therefore the advert was “not a true reflection of the price most consumers could expect to pay”.
Meanwhile, the watchdog said customers would think that adverts for “Travelodge Nottingham Riverside From £25” and “Travelodge Swansea M4 From £21” meant that a significant proportion of rooms at each hotel would be available at this price.
But the ASA understood these prices were only available to book for one night’s stay on May 18.
When it came to Hilton, the ASA said it had not seen sufficient evidence to show that a large proportion of hotel rooms were available for £68 at Hampton by Hilton Hamilton Park or £59 at Hampton by Hilton Newcastle.
ASA operations manager Emily Henwood said that advertised prices must match what is really available.
She said: “If only a few rooms are actually offered at the price shown, or it only applies to a specific date, then this information must be made clear to avoid misleading people.
“Otherwise, it’s unfair to anyone trying to find a good deal or make informed choices about where to book.”
She added that people should be able to trust the price included in ads.
These rulings show that the watchdog will take action if the rules are broken.
Meanwhile, Sue Davies, Which? head of consumer protection policy, said said it is “completely unacceptable” for hotels to mislead customers with too-good-to-be-true sales.
She added: “Which? reported several hotel groups to the ASA after we caught them using sneaky bait-pricing tactics, so it’s good to see the regulator taking action.
“This should send a message to other businesses that they must display prices accurately and ensure they aren’t misleading customers.”
In a statement, Travelodge said it takes its responsibilities under the ASA advertising guidelines seriously.
It said: “The prices shown in the ads were generated from our live pricing feed and represented the cheapest bookable date available.
“We recognise that customers expect clarity and transparency in pricing, and we continue to work closely with Google to ensure all ad formats are clear and fully compliant.”
SEE CLEARLY
Mechanic reveals ‘secret’ button that will defrost your windows even quicker
waltzing off
La Voix’s statement in full as injured star is forced to pull out of Strictly
It added that this particular ad format was removed before the ASA ruling and it remains committed to “transparent, accurate and great-value pricing for all our customers”.
Booking.com, Hilton and Accor were approached for comment.
