Premier Inn has been rapped for advertising rooms for £35 a night when only a “small percentage” were available at that rate.
The advertising watchdog upheld a complaint against the UK’s largest budget hotel chain after a customer could not find any rooms available for the advertised rate at a Premier Inn in Edinburgh last November.
The customer challenged whether the claim in the paid-for search advert was misleading and could be substantiated.
The Advertising Standards Authority ruled that the advert breached its rules.
The ASA said it “considered that consumers would understand the claim ‘Premier Inn Edinburgh – Rooms From Only £35 Per Night’ as meaning that a significant proportion of rooms available across the proceeding 365 days would be available at £35.
“We reviewed the table of data provided. It outlined that only a small percentage of site nights had rooms on offer for £35.
“We therefore concluded the claim ‘Premier Inn Edinburgh – Rooms From Only £35 Per Night’ had not been substantiated and was likely to mislead.”
Premier Inn owner Whitbread, which yesterday revealed 1,500 job losses, provided a table that outlined the spread of availability of hotel rooms in Edinburgh at £35, showing that there had been 377 nights available at that rate, which it considered to be a “significant spread”.
Premier Inn said it provided training on responsible advertising, including around availability and appropriate targeting of ads.
The company removed the challenged claim so that the complaint could be properly investigated and so the data could be fully scrutinised, according to the authority.
But the ASA said: “The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Whitbread Group/Premier Inn to ensure that when using ‘from’ price claims in the future, a significant proportion of the advertised rooms were available at the advertised price.”