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The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has secured changes from the majority of hotel booking sites operating in the UK, it has announced.
Some 25 firms, including big brands like TripAdvisor, Airbnb and Google as well as major hotel chains, have agreed to change how they display information where needed and have signed up to the CMA’s sector wide principles for complying with consumer protection law.
These principles include not giving a false impression of a room’s popularity and always displaying the full cost of a room upfront.
Most have already made any necessary changes. Accor, IHG, Hilton, Marriott, Radisson Hotel Group, and Wyndham Hotels and Resorts requested more time as they will need to introduce specific technical updates so that UK customers are always shown the full cost of a room upfront when searching for hotels abroad.
The CMA said it will now be “closely monitoring” to ensure that these firms make the required changes in a timely manner.
The announcement comes after the CMA took enforcement action against six other companies – Expedia, Booking.com, Agoda, Hotels.com, ebookers and trivago – for serious concerns it had around issues like pressure selling, misleading discount claims and the effect that commission has on how hotels are ordered on sites.
The CMA was concerned that some of these practices could mislead people, stop them finding the best deal and potentially break consumer protection law. All six firms formally committed to clean up their sites and have now made the agreed changes.
CMA CEO Andrea Coscelli said: “People booking hotels online can now do so with more confidence thanks to the CMA’s action. Major websites and big hotel chains have agreed to clean up their act if they’ve been using misleading sales tactics, and have signed up to sector-wide consumer law principles on how to display important information to customers.
“The CMA will now be watching to make sure that these major brands, used by millions of people in the UK every year, stay true to their word. We will take action if we find evidence that firms are breaking consumer law.”
CMA added if it finds that any sites fail to make the appropriate changes or becomes concerned that people are being misled, it “will not hesitate” to take further action.
