Advert for cheap all-inclusive packages banned
A Sunspot Tours advert for cheap all-inclusive packages has been banned after advertising watchdogs found an insufficient number of holidays were available at the lead-in price.
The company, owned by Mercury Holidays, was advertising a week at a four-star hotel from £299, but a customer reported Sunspot to the Advertising Standards Authority after failing to find a holiday at that price.
Sunspot provided proof to the ASA that it had sold four packages at £299.
It told the watchdog that prices were based on a live flight system which used low-cost airlines, so it was impossible to tell how many seats were left at a specific price at the time it published its adverts, so it included small text at the bottom of the page stating availability may be limited and that prices were subject to change.
In upholding the complaint, the ASA said: "We acknowledged that holidays available through third parties could be subject to change and advertisers were unlikely to be able to monitor real-time availability.
"However, we considered that advertisers should be in a position to provide evidence to demonstrate that the price in question was available to consumers at the time the ad appeared and in reasonable quantities.
"Furthermore, we noted that the qualification, ‘Please note availability may be limited … are subject to change going to print’ was placed at the bottom of the ad in small text. We considered that the information was not prominent and was likely to have been overlooked by consumers.
"Because we had not seen evidence to demonstrate that a reasonable quantity of holidays were available at the advertised ‘from’ price at the time the ad appeared and because the ad did not make sufficiently clear that the "from" price was subject to change and had limited availability we concluded that the ad was misleading."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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