Hotel chain ‘overwhelmed’ by response to discount offer
Park Plaza Hotels Europe admitted that it ‘may have disappointed customers’ last October when it was unable to satisfy demand for discounted hotel rooms.
The chain had offered rooms in London for £119 in an ‘early Black Friday’ email promotion, but it claimed the response was ‘overwhelming’ compared to other promotions.
Two people complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) when they were unable to find rooms at the price stated in the email.
In response, Park Plaza said the email generated nearly 1,000 room-nights, compared to only 30-room nights a month earlier for a similar promotion and more than three times the number of room-nights than during the whole of October by various newsletters.
It said it had accepted bookings at the promotion rate on 84% of days within the promotional period and it claimed it had made sufficient rooms available for the promotion but admitted that due to the high uptake it ‘may have had to disappoint customers’.
Upholding the complaint, the ASA said Park Plaza Hotels had not provided sufficient detail to demonstrate how it had estimated the likely demand for the offer or how many rooms were available at the promotional price.
"We acknowledged that Park Plaza Hotels had stated that the offer was ‘subject to availability’, which was displayed on their click-through terms and conditions. However, we did not consider that this negated the requirement for sufficient information regarding availability to be provided.
"We were concerned that the information appeared on a separate page and was therefore not sufficiently prominent. We considered that where hotels or dates had, or were likely to have, very limited availability under the promotion, that information would affect a consumer’s decision to participate and should, therefore, be made clear in the main body of the ad," said the ASA.
"Because Park Plaza Hotels had not demonstrated that they had made a reasonable estimate of the likely response and had not included sufficient information about the likely room availability at the promotional price, we concluded that the ad was misleading."
The ASA has told Park Plaza to make a ‘reasonable estimate’ of likely response to their promotions and include ‘sufficient information’ regarding likely availability.
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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