Advertisements for three hotel chains, and the travel website Booking.com, have been banned for misleading consumers about the number of rooms available at the cheapest prices.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that Booking.com, Accor, Travelodge and Hilton all used ‘from’ price claims for hotel rooms that overstated how many were available at the advertised rate.
Because only a small proportion of rooms were available at the advertised prices across a range of dates, the ASA found the ads to be misleading and banned all four.
In Booking.com’s case, an ad on May 6 stated: ‘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 displayed were ‘dynamically chosen’ by Google from data it provided, meaning they could vary for each user and search.
They believed the information displayed in the ad was accurate and not misleading.
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The ASA said the data Booking.com provided showed that seven bookings were made at the easyHotel Sheffield City Centre for the advertised price in May.
It said it did not receive any other information from Booking.com, such as the number of dates on which rooms were available for £28, to enable us to make an adequate assessment of the proportion of rooms at the hotel available at the advertised price and therefore considered that the information provided was insufficient to substantiate the claim ‘From £28.’
The watchdog found Accor’s ad for £27 rooms at its Ibis Budget Birmingham Centre were only available for a night’s stay on July 30, and was therefore ‘not a true reflection of the price most consumers could expect to pay.’
It said consumers would understand the claims ‘Travelodge Nottingham Riverside From £25’ and ‘Travelodge Swansea M4 From £21’ to mean that a significant proportion of rooms at each hotel would be available at the advertised price.
However, it understood that the advertised prices were only available to book for a night’s stay on May 18.
In Hilton’s case, the ASA said it had not seen sufficient evidence to demonstrate that a significant proportion of hotel rooms were available at the advertised prices of £68 at Hampton by Hilton Hamilton Park or £59 at Hampton by Hilton Newcastle.
ASA operations manager Emily Henwood said: ‘Advertised prices must match what’s really available.’
‘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.
‘People should be able to trust the prices they see in ads and these rulings show that we will take action if the rules are broken.’
Sue Davies, Head of Consumer Protection Policy at the watchdog Which?, described the situation as unacceptable and said she was glad to see action being taken to stop it.
‘It’s completely unacceptable for hotels to mislead customers with too-good-to-be-true sales, where they reel in consumers with the promise of a great deal, only for it to be almost impossible to make a booking at the bargain rate,’ she said.
‘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.’