Premier Inn ad banned over ‘misleading’ pricing claims

An ad for Premier Inn has been banned for making misleading claims about room prices.

The paid-for search ad for the hotel chain, seen on November 4, stated: “Premier Inn Edinburgh – rooms from only £35 per night.”

A reader complained to the advertising watchdog after being unable to find any rooms at the advertised price.

Whitbread Group, trading as Premier Inn, provided the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) with data showing there were a total of 377 rooms 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 available across the proceeding 365 days would be available at £35.

However, the data showed that only a small percentage of site 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, adding: “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: “As the UK’s best-loved budget hotel brand we always have hundreds of thousands of great value rooms available but we accept that this specific digital campaign wasn’t up to our usual high standard and it was never our intention to be misleading.

“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.”