Thomas Cook, Loveholidays and DialAFlight have all been battered by the advertising watchdog for making environmental claims in their advertising campaigns without being “clear and transparent” about what they were based on.
The rulings form part of a wider crackdown on environmental claims in the travel agent sector, following intelligence gathering by the Advertising Standards Authority’s Active Ad Monitoring system, which uses AI to proactively search for online ads that might break the rules.
First up were two Google ads for Loveholidays, which ran in July, promoting the “Green Garden Eco Resort” and the “Marvida Family Eco Hotel”.
In response to the ASA investigation, the online travel agent explained that in both cases the term “Eco” was part of the accommodation’s name rather than an environmental claim formulated, adopted or endorsed by Loveholidays.
The firm insisted it did not make any separate representation about the environmental credentials of either property, and the ads only reproduced the property names for identification purposes, in keeping with standard practice for an accommodation retailer displaying third-party inventory.
Meanwhile, a paid-for Google ad for Thomas Cook stated “Sandos Caracol Eco Resort”. Text underneath stated “Relax at Sandos Caracol Eco Resort – flights included. Book now with Thomas Cook”. Alongside that was an image of two people in a swimming pool.
In its defence, the travel firm tried to blame Google, insisting it had created the ad using either the Google Ads tools Performance Max or Dynamic Search Ads. Those tools automatically generated parts of search ads based on the terms used by consumers when searching with the engine. It insisted said the phrase “Eco Resort” therefore appeared automatically in the ad, in response to user search terms.
Even so, Thomas Cook maintained it had taken steps to block “Sandos Caracol Eco” as a search term to prevent it appearing in future searches.
Finally, a Meta ad for DialAFlight, seen in July for Jumeirah at Saadiyat Island Resort, said: “Reconnect with yourself and your surroundings at our eco-conscious resort …”
DialAFlight said the claim “eco-conscious resort” had been taken from a factsheet provided by the accommodation, while the hotel provided the ASA with a list of environmental initiatives and activities undertaken at the resort.
In all three cases, however, the watchdog found that consumers were likely to interpret the claims as meaning the accommodation had environmental characteristics or benefits, but were not given enough information to understand what those were.
Banning all three from running again, the ASA went on to warn the firms about future activity.
A Loveholidays spokeswoman commented: “As an online travel agent, we do not own, operate or manage the accommodation we sell. The hotel names displayed in our advertising reflected the trading names of the properties, rather than environmental claims made by Loveholidays.
“We have updated the listings for the hotels concerned and removed the advertisements. We will continue to review our processes to ensure the information we provide to customers is clear and transparent.”
ASA director of complaints and investigations Miles Lockwood said: “For people looking to make more environmentally conscious choices when it comes to booking their holidays, it’s important that they can trust the claims that they see in ads.
“Today’s rulings make clear that if a hotel or resort is described as ‘eco’ or ‘eco-conscious’, advertisers need to be clear about what that means, so people have the information they need to make an informed choice about where to book.”
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