ASA Upholds Complaint Against Hotel Booking Site

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a complaint made against hotel booking site ‘Booking.com BV’ for publishing an advertisement featuring misleading hotel prices.

The advertisement stated, “Places to stay in Sheffield – Best Price Guarantee”, and “easyHotel Sheffield City Centre From £28”.

The ad was identified following intelligence gathered by ASA’s Active Ad Monitoring system and was challenged on the grounds of whether the claim “From £28” was misleading to the consumer.

Booking.com BV challenged this on the grounds that for in paid-for search ads, Google selected the dates and price displayed and provided evidence that seven bookings were made for the advertised price.

ASA concluded that the wording “From £28” was misleading and Booking.com BV could not prove that a large proportion of the hotel rooms were priced at £28, and that although the ad was created and chosen by Google, it was the duty of the advertiser to ensure that any advertisements complied with The Committee of Advertising Practice code and that pricing data provided to paid-for search ad providers was accurate.