Hotel booking giants hit with advert ban over misleading price claims

Adverts for three hotel chains and the travel site 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 exaggerated how many were on offer at the advertised rate.

Because only a tiny fraction of rooms were actually available at the advertised prices across a range of dates, the ASA found the ads to be misleading and prohibited 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.

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 it 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 Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) found that Accor’s advertisement for £27 rooms at its Ibis Budget Birmingham Centre as the offer was only available for a night’s stay on July 30, and therefore “not a true reflection of the price most consumers could expect to pay”.

The ASA stated that customers would interpret the claims “Travelodge Nottingham Riverside From £25” and “Travelodge Swansea M4 From £21” as indicating that a significant number of rooms at each hotel would be available at the advertised price.

However, it emerged that these advertised prices were only applicable for a night’s stay on May 18.

In the case of Hilton, the ASA expressed that it had not seen enough evidence to prove that a substantial 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.

Emily Henwood, ASA operations manager, 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.”

Travelodge said: “Travelodge takes its responsibilities under the ASA advertising guidelines seriously. 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. This particular ad format was removed prior to the ASA ruling, and we remain committed to transparent, accurate, and great-value pricing for all our customers.”

Booking.com said: “Our aim is to consistently provide travellers with transparent information when planning and booking trips on our platform. This includes accurately showing rates and availability at the time of advertising.”

“Which was the case in this instance, with successful bookings being made at the advertised rate, evidence of which was shared with the ASA. We continue to work collaboratively with the ASA to address any outstanding questions they might have.”

A representative for Accor said: “While the advertised ‘from’ prices were available and reflected rates which could be booked by guests at the time the advertisements were seen, we recognise that the range of dates available wasn’t aligned with the Committee of Advertising Practice Code.”.

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 “We are taking this opportunity to further strengthen our existing internal processes. The specific advertisement that was found to be in breach has since expired and will no longer be shown.”

“Accor is fully committed to complying with all applicable regulations and to safeguarding the interests of our guests.”