'Misleading' Premier Inn advert promoting 'rooms from only £35 per night' banned by advertising watchdog

Hotel chain Premier Inn has had a paid-for search engine advert banned after the advertising watchdog deemed it was “misleading”.

The advert, seen online on November 4, stated: “Premier Inn Edinburgh - rooms from only £35 per night.” However, a reader complained to the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) after being unable to find any rooms priced at a minimum of £35 per night.

Whitbread Group, which operates Premier Inn, provided the ASA with data which showed that there were a total of 377 rooms on offer for £35 per night in Edinburgh within the 365-day booking window. However, the ASA argued that the advert would lead consumers to believe that a significant proportion of rooms would be available at the lowest rate, rather than the small percentage as shown in the data provided by the company.

The ASA said in its ruling: “We therefore concluded the claim ‘Premier Inn Edinburgh – Rooms From Only £35 Per Night’ had not been substantiated and was likely to mislead. 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.”