Crystal Holidays has been ordered to ensure advertised prices are available to consumers after a complaint about availability on the operator’s website.
The advertising watchdog found that the website was misleading in advertising a holiday that was not available.
Upholding a complaint, the Advertising Standards Authority told Tui Travel-owned Crystal Summer to ensure that the advertised prices were available to consumers at the time they appeared.
Crystal argued that the hotel in question had requested that it be removed from sale on crystalsummer.co.uk but the website was not updated to reflect the updated availability until the day after the complainant to the ASA had performed their search.
The operator confirmed that the advertised offer could not be purchased via the website on the day of the search in April.
The ASA said: “In the complainant’s case, the search results indicated there was availability of their chosen holiday at the advertised price.
“However, at the conclusion of the booking process, they were informed that the holiday they had selected was not available.
“We understood that the hotel in question had requested that it be withdrawn from sale by Crystal Summer for the date in question, but that due to technical limitations the website showed the holiday as available.
“We told Crystal Summer to ensure that the advertised prices were available to consumers at the time they appeared.”