Consumer champion Which? has criticised a range of time-limited travel deals offered to customers, after an investigation revealed that they may not offer the best value for money.
Travel companies are increasingly using “hurry deals”, which offer potentially large savings on breaks within a fixed period.
However, when the deals were examined closely by the consumer watchdog it was found that almost half of the advertised holidays could be secured for the same or lower price after the deal had ended.
In some cases, the price of a holiday in a short-term sale was beaten by a follow-up sale a few weeks later, or prices were reduced after the sale had ended.
In one case, a hotel company was offering deals for a limited time with a reduction of 40 per cent. However, when Which? investigated it found that a number of the prices had dropped even further after the advertised sale period had ended.
A cruise operator was also found to have misled customers after it offered a saving of £500 until April 17, but Which? found that the same saving was still available nine days later.
Which? has also accused another cruise company of offering the same “hurry deal” more than once. After advertising the deal as limited to five days, it offered a better deal on the same cruise three weeks later.
“No one likes finding out that someone on the same holiday paid less for it. But it’s even worse if you bought your holiday in a rush because the ads told you the prices would be available only for a short time,” said Richard Lloyd, Which? executive director.
“With family budgets squeezed and many people on the lookout for a bargain, travel companies shouldn’t hurry holiday-makers into making decisions that might not give them the best value for money.”
