Hotel chain price guarantee was misleading, say watchdogs
The first ever price guarantee offered by an international hotel chain has been rubbished by advertising watchdogs.
Upholding a complaint by a would-be guest, the Advertising Standards Authority said the InterContinental Hotels Group did not make exclusions to the price guarantee clear enough on its website.
IHG stated: ""Best Price Guarantee … We’re so sure the best prices for our hotels are found on our websites that we were the first to offer the most powerful price guarantee ever by a global travel company.
"Every hotel reservation booked through an IHG web site [sic] is guaranteed to have the lowest room price (room rate) or total room cost (including all taxes and fees) publicly available on the internet or IHG will provide the first night’s room price free and match the lower average nightly room price found for that stay for the rest of the nights of that stay (subject to the Terms and Conditions of the Guarantee)".
However, the complainant reported IHG to the advertising watchdog when told that their claim for the best price guarantee did not qualify because the competitor’s website was registered in the United States.
As a result, they said the IHG claim was misleading.
The ASA agreed, saying that the relevant terms and conditions were included on a page that was one click away from the Best Price guarantee.
"Because we considered the condition was not sufficiently prominent, we concluded the ad was misleading," it said.
"We told InterContinental Hotels Group plc (IHG) to ensure that qualifications were sufficiently prominent in marketing communications, for example by including the condition that the total room cost on the non-IHG website must be available, viewable, quoted, booked and paid for in the currency of the hotel, on the Best Price Guarantee page."
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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