Bed & Breakfast News Issue #46 Spring 2018 | Page 7

Visit our website: | bandbnews.co.uk | 7
David told Booking.com: “Our members
are daily faced with clients who assume
cancellation is free.
“Our members routinely get calls from your
team pressurising them to waive cancellation
fees due under the contract. (Where a B&B
has to cancel a booking, your team rigorously
enforce your rules). We consider this an abuse
of the ‘partnership’ between accommodation
owners and Booking.
“Causing financial damage in this way is not
the action of a partner. It is the opposite
of the actions a responsible ‘agent’ of the
accommodation owner would pursue.
“Please do not underestimate the depth
of feeling your outrageous advertising has
aroused. We are calling on Booking.com
to stop running these ads now, and any
campaign aimed at promoting late and free
cancelations.”
Proving that lobbying is sometimes effective
and the voice of the smallest businesses can
be heard, the B&B Association’s calls were
answered – not by Booking.com listening
to our members’ concerns, but by the
advertising regulator weigh ing in on our side.
Early this year, the Advertising Standards
Agency (ASA), the UK’s advertising watchdog,
banned Booking’s ‘free cancellation’ TV ad,
ruling that it was ‘misleading’ and must not
be broadcast again.