Premier Inn has been banned by England’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) from advertising rooms “from only £35 a night” after an online ad was found to be potentially misleading to consumers.
The London based ASA determined that the ad, stating “Premier Inn Edinburgh – rooms from only £35 per night,” could mislead viewers as only a small percentage of rooms were actually available at that price within a year of the ad running.
Premier Inn’s owner Whitbread confirmed there were 377 rooms available for £35 in Edinburgh, but the ASA noted that customers might believe a significant number of rooms would be available at that price, which was not the case.
In response, Premier Inn acknowledged the oversight and stated that the issue arose due to a more popular than expected £35 offer, leading to rooms selling out quickly without timely updates to the ad pricing. The hotel chain has implemented enhanced processes to ensure future compliance with pricing claims.
A written statement from Premier Inn said: “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.”
