Wowcher has ditched a supplier from its approved list of ‘mystery holiday’ partners after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a complaint from a customer who was unable to book the destination offered.
A deal, which appeared as a banner on Wowcher’s website in March 2025, advertised holidays ‘from £99pp + Est £3.99 admin fee*’ to destinations including the Maldives, New York, Mexico, Dubai, Bali, and Disneyland Paris.
The customer was told their mystery holiday destination would be Rome, but it was no longer available, so they were offered alternative destinations, which required an additional payment.
Wowcher acknowledged the customer should have been able to book the holiday they had been offered, since the third-party travel provider had uploaded an availability file with that date and destination.
It said: “However, due to the dynamic nature of holiday prices and availability, at the point that the merchant contacted the complainant, they could no longer provide the holiday destination offered for that price.”
Wowcher has since removed the provider from its list of approved merchants for the mystery holiday deal.
The ASA upheld the complaint and told Wowcher to ensure promotions were administered fairly and did not cause unnecessary disappointment.
In a statement, it said: “We considered that consumers would understand from the ad that once their holiday destination had been revealed, they would be able to book a holiday to that destination without making any additional payments, unless a regional airport fee applied.
“As the consumer had already made the payment and provided their preferred travel dates before their holiday destination was revealed, we considered it was reasonable to expect that a holiday to that destination was available for that price.”
