Regulator says practices used by six firms could prevent customers finding best deals
Hotel booking sites will be forced to make major changes after Britain’s competition watchdog found they routinely engaged in pressure selling, misled consumers over prices and gave more prominence to hotels that paid the most commission.
The Competition and Markets Authority is clamping down on websites including Expedia, Booking.com and Hotels.com over practices that give a false impression of a hotel’s popularity, with claims such as “one room left at this price” and “booked four times in the last 24 hours”.
A room at a New York hotel, the Row NYC, was advertised at £166. However, on clicking through to book, once taxes and other fees were added, the price came to £211 – 27% more than the rate advertised in the headline.
Expedia offered a rate of £37.29 for a night at the Alsisar Hotel in Jaipur, India. The price was supposedly reduced from £109, sounding like a great deal, until the hotel’s own website showed the price for the same night was actually £34.35.
In a promotional email, Hotels.com advertised a deal for a one-night stay at the luxury London hotel 45 Park Lane for £388. However, the lowest available price for any date that could be found on the booking site was £488.
There was no way of verifying pressure prompts that claim a specific number of people are looking at the same hotel or whether they are looking at the same dates.
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