Regulator says Booking.com
continues to mislead customers
Last year the UK Competition and Markets Authority issued a ruling stating that booking sites should look again at the way they display hotel and other accommodation rooms as it was concerned that it such websites were involved in high pressure sales tactics to members of the public.
Which? says that it carried out an investigation and found that Booking.com continues to provide members of the public with false accounts of the popularity of hotel rooms.
Which? did spot-checks on six hotel booking websites which had been ordered by the Regulator to be changed earlier on this year. Previously it had been identified that the booking sites had provided misleading discount claims, had engaged in pressure selling and that there were hidden charges.
In particular the Booking.com website had said in a number of instances that there was “only one room left on our site” which statement was misleading. An example was provided of a Hotel in a regional city where the site said that there was only one room left on a "budget double room" but when Which? checked it found that there were four identical "budget double rooms" available at the same price.
The competition and markets authority had given the booking sites until this month to review their practices and mend their ways. Which?.com said the practices had the potential to and were in fact misleading millions of holiday makers and other persons requiring hotel accommodation.
Booking.com advised the media that they are continuing to work to improve transparency, choice and value to members of the public.
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This document is for information purposes only and does not purport to represent legal advice.
© O’Rourke Reid 2019