Booking.com TV ad ruled "misleading"

03 January 2018 by
Booking.com TV ad ruled "misleading"

A Booking.com television advert aired last year has been ruled "misleading" by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

The advert, promoting the website, claimed its cancellation fee was free "most of the time". However, this was only if customers opted for refundable booking, which was more expensive.

ASA considered consumers would understand "if you have to cancel, cancel. Most of the time it's free" to mean that if they wished to cancel their booking, in most instances they could do so without incurring cost, and would not regard the cancellation provision as "free" because the price of the booking was more expensive when it included the cancellation option.

ASA ruled the ad was misleading and must not be broadcast again, and told Booking.com not to describe the cancellation option for rooms as "free" if a premium was paid for that option.

Booking.com will be requesting an independent review of the decision.

Booking.com's advert on discounted hotel prices ‘was misleading', according to ASA >>

Hotel booking sites will work with competition watchdog's investigation >>

Videos from The Caterer archives

Are you looking for a new role? See all the current hospitality vacancies available with The Caterer Jobs

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media Group is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking