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No such thing as a free meal
Well, not at a Holiday Inn Express anyway.
Advertising watchdogs have ruled that the chain should no longer be allowed to claim in its TV ads that the breakfast is ‘free’ as it has been included as part of its standard package since 1996, therefore it is not an additional benefit.
The Advertising Standards Authority said the ads for Holiday Inn Express had flouted the rules and that they must no longer appear in their current form.
Holiday Inn Express has been advertising ‘free breakfasts’ since 2011, but the ASA launched an investigation following three complaints.
In its ruling it said: "We understood that breakfast had been provided to guests at Holiday Express Inn hotels since its establishment in 1996 and that the hotels were required to provide guests with breakfast without increasing the room rates.
"Given this, we did not consider the provision of breakfast to be an additional benefit that had recently been added to the hotel stay.
"We considered that the hotel room rate was inclusive of the breakfast, regardless of whether guests chose to take the breakfast. Therefore, we concluded that the claims ‘we give you a free breakfast’ and ‘free breakfast’ were misleading."
In its defence, Intercontinental Hotels, which owns the Holiday Inn Express franchise in the UK, said the room rate had not been increased to incorporate the cost of the breakfast. It also asserted that the claim ‘free breakfast’ was used by its competitors in the same manner in their advertising and that the use of ‘free’ was also frequently used outside the hotel industry, an example being ‘free wi-fi’ at a number of well-known fast food chain restaurants and coffee shops.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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