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Which? accused travel firms of using ‘psychological tricks’ to tempt people to book
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What Which? found and firms’ responses
Which? monitored adverts with ‘book now’ urgency calls to action. It found that after each promotion ended, the same or a cheaper deal was available in 16 out of 30 instances. Which? said a Sandals deal
was £100 cheaper per person a week after a ‘mega-sale’. Sandals said the research
was “flawed”, and pricing was dependent on air and hotel rates provided to it, and exchange rates. “We have an open dialogue with the ASA and have yet to receive any queries with regards to how we conduct our sales,” said Sandals. Which? said a Kuoni deal
Which? slams travel firms for misleading sales deals
Lee Hayhurst
lee.hayhurst@travelweekly.co.uk
Travel firms have been warned to expect closer scrutiny of sales deals following a Which? investigation.
As the turn-of-year peaks began, the consumer watchdog published a report accusing several travel firms of using “psychological tricks” to convince people to grab deals before they expired. But Which?’s probe last summer
found some prices fell immediately after the sales period, potentially in breach of the Committee of Advertising Practice’s code. Which? said it would continue
to monitor the sector and sent its findings to trading standards and the Advertising Standards Authority.
Steve Dunne, chief executive
of marketing consultancy Digital Drums, said: “Ten years ago, people would look at something once or twice. Today, they take the pulse of the market minute by minute. “I would always urge companies
to be as transparent as possible and if prices do fall, do a John Lewis and, within reason, offer to refund the difference if they find it cheaper.” Dunne said constantly changing
prices made it challenging for travel firms to meet customer expectations, but those that created unique deals would keep on the right side of the regulators. “Travel is going to find this particularly challenging because there are so many moving parts,” he said. “You have to make the offer perishable, so it won’t be available after a certain date.
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travelweekly.co.uk 4 January 2018
“Be careful of layering phrases like ‘special offer’ on deals subject to fluctuating prices”
“I’d imagine Which? will look to
highlight this every year. It’s great publicity for them.” Stephen Mason, senior partner
at Travlaw, said yield management by suppliers meant agents had to be aware of the “toxic mix” of fluid pricing and fixed-price deals. “The industry needs to be
careful of layering phrases like ‘special offer’ or ‘sale’ on deals when product is subject to fluctuating prices,” he said. “Consumers are getting better
at understanding that today’s price may not be tomorrow’s, or
fell by £200 after a ‘book by’ deadline. The operator said it had reviewed processes, so prices were transparent, adding: “It’s never our intention to mislead customers.” Inghams blamed a website
error for twice extending the deadline for an Italy deal.
this morning’s may not be this afternoon’s. “But there’s still a minority who
fail to understand what everyone else does, or see some advantage in pretending not to understand. “The big issue is when something is actively misleading.” Mason said the issues Which?
highlighted were not widespread in travel but warned it was an offence to offer a time-limited deal if you do not believe the price will rise. Abta said “having accurate
information at the time of booking, including transparency of prices, is really important” and “is reflected in our code of conduct”. It added: “The number of complaints we receive each year about holiday pricing is very low, indicating that the majority of price advertising is trustworthy.”
PICTURE: SHUTTERSTOCK
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