The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled that five different accommodation providers ran misleading promotions, which must not appear again.
In each case, the adverts were identified for investigation following intelligence gathered by the ASA’s Active Ad Monitoring system, which uses AI to proactively search for online ads that might break the rules.
In the first case, the ASA upheld a complaint against Accor, which advertised stays at the Ibis Budget Birmingham Centre from £27. The ASA said the advertised price was only available for a night’s stay on 30 July 2025.
“Whilst a large number of rooms in the hotel were available for £27 on that date, we considered that availability of the advertised price was not evenly spread across a period of time, and subsequently was not a true reflection of the price most consumers could expect to pay,” it said.
The ASA also said a paid-for search ad for Booking.com, seen on 6 May 2025, which stated: “Places to stay in Sheffield – Best Price Guarantee,” was misleading.
Further text stated: “easyHotel Sheffield City Centre From £28.”
The ASA said Booking.com didn’t give any information such as the number of dates on which rooms were available for £28 to enable it to make an adequate assessment and said the information provided was insufficient to substantiate the claim.
In another investigation, two paid-for search ads for Hilton Worldwide, seen on 11 April 2025, were also deemed misleading. The ASA said: “Because we had not seen sufficient evidence to demonstrate that a significant proportion of hotel rooms were available at the advertised prices, we concluded the pricing claims in the ads were misleading and could not be substantiated.”
Two paid for search ads for Travelodge Hotels, seen on 12 May 2025, which stated: “Travelodge Nottingham Riverside From £25” and “Travelodge Swansea M4 From £21,” were also investigated.
The watchdog said: “The ASA considered that consumers would understand the claims… to mean that a significant proportion of rooms at each hotel would be available at the advertised price. In the absence of any qualifications or date restrictions in the ads, we considered that consumers would expect to be able to find rooms at those prices across a range of dates.
“We therefore concluded that, in the absence of any information in the ads to indicate the date on which the advertised prices were available, the ads were misleading and could not be substantiated.”
Finally, an email promotion by Butlins, on 27 June, featured the subject heading: “The Big Butlin’s Sale ends in FOUR days,” and encouraged guests to book by 1 July to save money.
A subsequent email from Butlins said the closing date for the offer was extended to 15 July, and the ASA challenged whether the promotion breached its code, which states that closing dates for promotions must not be changed unless unavoidable circumstances outside the promoter’s control made it necessary.
Butlins was told it must not run the promotion again in the form complained of.
