Hotel group in trouble for misleading online offer
A UK hotel group has been reprimanded by advertising watchdogs for running a misleading online promotion.
De Vere Group ran an advert on its own website offering rooms, dinner, bed & breakfast and a bottle of wine ‘from £99’ from February 13 to May 31, to be booked by the end of May.
But following a complaint and an investigation, the Advertising Standards Authority found the £99 price was only actually available between February 13 and the end of March.
Although the small print made it clear that the offer may not be available everyday, the ASA ruled that the advertised price was not reasonably spread across the offer period and therefore breached the advertising code.
It told the group that the ad must not appear again in its current form and to ensure that in future promotions a reasonable proportion of rooms are available at the advertised "from" price and that this is reasonably spread across the offer period.
De Vere said its future ads would include a table detailing a "from" price for each month of the offer period and a peak night surcharge from each day of the week.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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