Ad description
A brochure, seen in early 2016 for National Holidays Ltd, promoted a holiday to Santa Susanna & Costa Brava. Text stated "Santa Susanna & Costa Brava All-Inclusive. Enjoy a nine day adventure ... WHAT'S INCLUDED? Coach travel throughout ... Six nights dinner, bed and continental breakfast at the Hotel ...".
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the claim "All-Inclusive" was misleading, because lunch was not included.
Response
National Holidays Ltd said the term 'all-inclusive' was used by many holiday companies, but believed the meaning varied depending on what individual companies were offering. They believed there was no accepted definition and referred to an online dictionary description that, rather than stating that all meals needed to be included for the holiday to be considered as all-inclusive, referred to “all or most meals”.
They said their own ‘all-inclusive’ packages included more elements than the standard hotel based all-inclusive holidays. They offered travel arrangements throughout the holiday, drinks inclusive packages, entertainment, excursions and most meals, but it was not possible to include lunch because of the number of excursions and activities they included in the package. They had designed the package over a number of years based on feedback from customers, who had told them that the excursions were more important than including lunch.
National Holidays said the brochure itemised what was included in the package and lunch was not one of the meals listed. They believed that it was clear from the list what was included in the package and customers would know exactly what was available to them before they chose to book.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA understood that “All-inclusive” was a widely used term to describe holiday packages or resorts where the lodging, meals, soft drinks, most alcoholic drinks and gratuities were included in the holiday price. We considered that consumers would therefore understand the claim “All-inclusive” to mean that all their meals, including lunch, would be included in the package.
We acknowledged that the holiday description stated “WHAT’S INCLUDED?” with a list of what was available in the package price. Although dinner and breakfast were the only meals mentioned, we considered that it was not sufficient to remove the overall impression or expectation created by the “All-Inclusive” headline claim that all meals would be included and therefore contradicted, rather than clarified, the claim. We concluded that, because lunch was not included, the claim “All-Inclusive” was likely to mislead consumers about the type of holiday package on offer.
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) and
3.9
3.9
Marketing communications must state significant limitations and qualifications. Qualifications may clarify but must not contradict the claims that they qualify.
(Qualification).
Action
The ad was must not appear again in its current form. We told National Holidays Ltd not to use the claim “All-Inclusive” unless all meals were included in the holiday package.
