Ad description
A website for SpaSeekers, www.spaseekers.com, through which consumers could book appointments and packages at a range of spas, seen 14 August 2018, included the claim “Instant online booking”.
Issue
The complainant, who understood not all bookings could be made instantly, challenged whether the claim “Instant online booking” was misleading.
Response
SpaSeekers Ltd said that the majority of bookings made through their system could be done so that they were immediately confirmed. Where that was not the case, customers received an email to say that their booking was pending, at which point SpaSeekers would contact the spa to confirm availability.
SpaSeekers explained that where instant booking was available for a spa package, the package’s individual listing would display a “live availability” calendar. For bookings that could not be immediately confirmed, “live availability” would not be stated. They believed that their website and emails clearly communicated to customers where they were in the booking system.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered the claim “Instant online booking” would be interpreted by consumers to mean that bookings made through SpaSeekers would be immediately and unconditionally confirmed.
We understood that some bookings were not confirmed instantly as SpaSeekers would first need to contact the spa to check availability. Where that was the case, we understood SpaSeekers took payment for the provisional booking, which would later be refunded in the event that the spa was unable to accommodate the booking.
For spa packages where instant booking was not available, we understood that “live availability” would not be stated on the package’s individual listing. However, we considered consumers would be likely to interpret the main claim – “Instant online booking” – to mean that this would be a feature for all bookings made through SpaSeekers. We considered any additional claims suggesting that was not the case would not be in line with consumers’ interpretation of the claim “Instant online booking”.
Because some bookings were not immediately confirmed, we concluded that the claim “Instant online booking” was misleading, and that the ad was therefore in breach of the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules
3.1
3.1
Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
and
3.3
3.3
Marketing communications must not mislead the consumer by omitting material information. They must not mislead by hiding material information or presenting it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner.
Material information is information that the consumer needs to make informed decisions in relation to a product. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead the consumer depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the marketing communication is constrained by time or space, the measures that the marketer takes to make that information available to the consumer by other means.
(Misleading advertising).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told SpaSeekers Ltd not to state or imply that they offered instant online booking across all their spa listings.
