Premier Inn £35-a-night advert banned by ASA

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a Premier Inn hotel in Edinburgh from using an advert offering rooms for £35 per night.

The paid-for search ad for the Edinburgh branch of the Whitbread-owned hotel chain was deemed to be “misleading”.

The investigation came after a customer complained to the ASA in November 2023 because they couldn’t find any rooms at the advertised price.

Premier Inn responded to the watchdog with data demonstrating that 377 rooms had been made available for the £35 price within a 365-day booking window. But the ASA said this was on a small percentage of availability and was “likely to mislead”.

The advert is not allowed to appear again in its current form.

A Whitbread spokesperson 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.”

Yesterday, Whitbread announced it was to cut 4% of its UK workforce as part of its strategy to exit 126 branded restaurants over the next two years and focus more on its hotel chains.