Ad description
A Google sponsored ad stated "HolidayLettings.co.uk - Easy & Secure Holiday Bookings ... Book Affordable Accommodation Now! Payment Protection Simple Online Booking Trusted Guest Feedback".
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the ad was misleading because it did not make clear that consumers who clicked on the ad were directed to a version of the site that did not include all the listed properties.
Response
Holiday Lettings Ltd highlighted that the ad featured the claims “Simple Online Booking”, “Easy & Secure Holiday Bookings” and “Book Affordable Accommodation Now!”. Therefore they believed it was clear to consumers that they would be offered a selection of properties that were available to book online. After clicking on the ad and users arrived at the site, there were two prominent references to denote that the results returned related to properties bookable online and every returned property appeared with a badge which stated “book online with payment protection”. They believed consumers would understand from the ad that the landing page would contain a list of properties that they could book through the site immediately. Nothing in the ad indicated that users would be provided with a full list of their available properties.
Regardless of the above, Holiday Lettings stated that even if consumers were not aware from the ad that they would only be presented with properties that were bookable online, the fact that properties that could not be booked online were not displayed was unlikely to impact upon their decision whether or not to click on the link.
Holiday Lettings also stated that visitors to the site via the sponsored link did not necessarily always access a limited version of the site. For testing purposes, they served different versions of the website to users depending on different factors, including how they arrived at the site.
Assessment
THIS RULING REPLACES THAT PUBLISHED ON 7 OCTOBER 2015. THE WORDING OF THE ASSESSMENT HAS CHANGED BUT THE DECISION TO NOT UPHOLD THE COMPLAINT REMAINS.
Not upheld
The ASA noted that the ad included references to “Easy & Secure … Bookings”, “Book … Now!”, “Online Booking” and "Payment Protection". We considered that consumers would understand those references to mean that the linked site would include properties that could be booked online via the site and were covered by payment protection.
We understood that owners who listed properties with Holiday Lettings could choose to manage their own bookings, and therefore arrange payment from customers directly, or use Holiday Lettings’ online booking platform and pay Holiday lettings a commission on each booking. Because the ad directed consumers to a page of the site that had been filtered to include only those listed properties that could be booked online and were covered by payment protection, we concluded that it was unlikely to mislead.
We investigated the ad under 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), but did not find it in breach.
Action
No further action necessary.
