Which? Travel says several of the biggest online travel companies, including Loveholidays and comparison site Trivago could be breaking the law on drip pricing.
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act, introduced on 6 April, requires businesses to provide a total upfront price for their services.
However, the consumer body Which? Travel says some travel companies are continuing to hide mandatory charges, such as admin and booking fees or taxes, and add them at a later stage in the buying process.
In February, it found that Loveholidays was advertising a week at The Excalibur Hotel in Las Vegas for around £371 in July, but this didn’t include a mandatory £257 resort fee that guests must pay on checkout.
Since the new law came into effect, Loveholidays now says on its website: “Your hotel may charge additional fees, which must be paid there,” but, Which? Travel says, it doesn’t say how much they will be.
When Which? Travel contacted Loveholidays, it said it ‘suggested’ it was looking into showing resort fees in its prices.
“Until it does, we think that it’s breaking the law,” said Which? Travel.
“Some other less well-known sites are also failing to include resort fees, but most of the big ones – including Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com and Lastminute.com do include them.”
A lovehholidyays spokesperson told Travel Gossip: “We remain committed to providing customers with clear and accurate pricing information throughout our booking journey, and we are actively testing solutions that will enable us to present resort fees where they apply in the near future.”
BA Holidays also failed to include the full cost of the resort fee for Excalibur in its headline price when first checked by Which? in February, before the new law was introduced. Which? said the additional fee was ‘buried’ towards the bottom on the page in ‘essential information’.
When it checked again this month, after the new law came in, the hotel was advertised as “from £388’ but when the user clicked through, it said: “The advertised price has changed. Due to availability, the advertised price of £388 is no longer available on these dates. The best available price for these dates is now £671.”
“We think this has nothing to do with ‘availability’ and is just a belated attempt to include the ‘resort fee’ in response to the new law. However, the real price should be shown from the start,” said Which? Travel.
“We flagged this to BA, and it said it was working to fix the problem.”
A BA Holidays’ spokesperson told Travel Gossip: “We’re committed to transparent pricing for our customers and are continually updating our website to reflect changes in the law.”
Which? Travel also accused price comparison site Trivago of including accommodation sites that don’t show the resort fee in listings for the Excalibur and other hotels.
A Trivago spokesperson told Travel Gossip: “Trivago is committed to providing consumers with a transparent, and reliable price comparison experience. As a marketplace platform, we actively engage with our many partners on an ongoing basis to ensure they provide accurate pricing information to us, including any mandatory fees. We appreciate bringing these individual cases to our attention. We are reviewing these cases and will raise any issues with the relevant partners so they can be addressed and will continue to prioritize accurate pricing by our partners to our users”.
Which? Travel also accused deals site Wowcher of potentially flouting the new law by failing to include the full cost of its mandatory admin fees in holiday prices.
While the site does say there is an estimated admin fee of £3.99, that is for purchases of up to £100. “If the total hotel stay costs more than £200, the admin fee is £9.99, which you wouldn’t know before checkout unless you read the fine print,” said Which? Travel.
“We don’t think that the way Wowcher shows its prices complies with the law.”
A spokesperson for Wowcher said: “Wowcher has implemented various changes to its website to ensure compliance with the DMCC Act, and provides an estimate of its variable admin fee which appears clearly and prominently on its deal pages prior to the customer reaching checkout. Our intention is to ensure that our website is clear and transparent for customers, allowing them to make purchase decisions with confidence on the Wowcher platform.”
Which? Travel believes the Competitions and Markets Authority should investigate some of these firms.
