Premier Inn advert banned for misleading price claim

An advert for a Premier Inn hotel in Edinburgh has been banned for misleading claims about room prices.

The paid-for search ad stated that rooms at the hotel chain were priced from £35 per night.

A reader complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after being unable to find any rooms at the advertised price.

Whitbread, the parent company of Premier Inn, said its £35 a night offer had proved more popular than expected, which meant rooms had quickly sold out before advertising could be updated.

Whitbread Group provided the watchdog with data showing that a total of 377 rooms had been on offer for £35 in Edinburgh within the 365-day booking window.

The ASA said consumers would understand the ad to mean that a significant proportion of rooms would have been available across the proceeding 365 days at £35.

However, the data showed that only a small percentage of nights had rooms on offer for £35.

The regulator said: "We therefore concluded the claim 'Premier Inn Edinburgh - Rooms From Only £35 Per Night' had not been substantiated and was likely to mislead."

It ruled that the ad must not appear again.

It added: "We told Premier Inn to ensure that when using 'from' price claims in the future, a significant proportion of the advertised rooms were available at the advertised price."

A Premier Inn spokeswoman said the campaign "wasn't up to our usual high standard" but that it was "never our intention to be misleading."

She added: "Unfortunately, the issue arose as a result of a £35 offer which proved slightly more popular than initially expected - the rooms sold quickly and we didn't react fast enough to update the lead pricing in our paid-for ads against the available inventory.

"Enhanced processes are already in place to ensure future compliance and clear verification of any claims and we're confident this issue won't arise again."

Whitbread this week announced plans to cut 1,500 jobs as it closes restaurants and expands its hotel business.

It intends to sell 126 less profitable restaurants, and close a further 112, while converting space from the moves into more hotel rooms.