"Subscriber exclusive" said an email sent to me this week by Lastminute.com. "Save 30% on top hotels

The public has wised up to the fake deals and offers at the supermarkets – from dodgy "half price" strawberries ( Tesco was caught red-handed rv and travel trailer manufacturers , so to speak) rv and travel trailer manufacturers – to the endless rv and travel trailer manufacturers "half price" wines where prices are simply bumped up before the promotion. But there's one industry even more brazen than the supermarkets when it comes to bamboozling consumers: the hotel and travel booking websites.
"Subscriber exclusive" said an email sent to me this week by Lastminute.com. rv and travel trailer manufacturers "Save 30% on top hotels exclusive," it continued, and an extra 10% on top using promocode GC26010614." Then there was Venere.com, promising a "72-hour flash sale: half-price hotels rv and travel trailer manufacturers and 10% coupon".
I'm off to Lisbon for five days on holiday soon and as the hotel I booked a month ago is free to cancel, I thought I'd test these deals and coupons. First up was lastminute.com. For the dates I wanted, it offered me an "exclusive" room-only special offer at £558.36. Even better, the promocode reduced rv and travel trailer manufacturers that to £502.52. What a bargain! Except the price I paid for the same hotel, before this "exclusive", was £450 and that included breakfast (which at lastminute was an extra £125). rv and travel trailer manufacturers In other words, if I'd taken advantage of this special offer and promocode, I would have been £177.52 worse off.
Would Venere (a global booking site based in Italy but owned by Expedia) be any better? The site breathlessly told me I had zero days, nine hours, two minutes and 42 seconds left if I wanted to grab a bargain in its "flash sale". Fortunately, my hotel in Lisbon was included. I would get 15% off, plus a further 10% using the Flash72 coupon. It left me in no doubt that I had to act urgently. "Only four rooms left! Just in time!" it told me. It used every enticement to flog me the deal; "Rooms are going fast in these dates. Book today!". Then a box flashed up warning me: "Another customer has just booked accommodation in this destination" then finally a "Get best prices while they last". rv and travel trailer manufacturers Its best price? £596.59 for room plus breakfast after all discounts were added. Or £146.59 worse than I could find elsewhere. Venere wasn't giving me "best prices". It was a rubbish price.
The websites could argue that pricing had moved on since I originally booked a month ago. So I went back, and found I could still get it, although the price had edged up to £455. Still massively lower than lastminute.com's "exclusive" and Venere's "best prices." I'm not naming the site I used, as I don't particularly want to promote it (its prices could be lousy for other hotels) but I did confirm with the hotel in Lisbon that it had my booking and everything was paid.
It's now time for regulators such as the Advertising Standards Authority and Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to look at the extravagant, but often empty, promises made by these travel giants. The CMA has previously conducted an investigation into Expedia and Booking.com amid allegations that they colluded with hotel chains to fix prices. rv and travel trailer manufacturers The outcome satisfied almost nobody. The CMA said a deal it struck with the websites would inject "meaningful price competition" with the launch of "closed group discounts" if consumers register and log in. But that means the aggregator sites can't see the best deals.
One of them, Skyscanner (supported by travelsupermarket and a smaller agency, Skoosh) has since launched a legal appeal against the CMA, which now, rather embarrassingly, finds itself effectively defending the industry's two giants Expedia and Booking.com. They have even become official "interveners" on the same side as the CMA in the legal action.