Most major travel providers now advertise trips that can actually be booked at the offer price.
This is reported by the Consumers’ Association in a press release on Tuesday.
The union held talks about this with several travel providers.
But with some providers, you still have to watch out for baiting, says the union.
In 2023 and 2024, the Consumers’ Association examined the offers of ten major travel providers.
In the last investigation, two-thirds of the offers checked were found to be incorrect.
‘Often, unavoidable costs were added. Or trips turned out to be sold out. Also, the most favorable prices usually only applied when departing from abroad, without that being mentioned,” the union writes.
The majority of travel providers are now doing a lot better.
‘For example, they mention it in the offer price if it only applies to departures from a foreign airport. KLM Holidays, Transavia Holidays and TUI now include mandatory booking fees in the price. Expedia stopped advertising Holiday Deals whose price was never right. And The Travel Club no longer advertises prices online at all.’ Cruise prices now also all-in TUI previously advertised cruises with the final price rising by hundreds and sometimes even thousands of euros, according to the union.
‘Also, mandatory tips were not yet included in the price, even though they are required by the rules. In the meantime, TUI has also updated its website.’ Advertising with sold-out trips A sample shows that the offer price for D-reizen and Prijsvrij is still almost never correct, says the Consumers’ Association, which together checked 30 random offers with these providers.
In 27 of them the price was higher or lower, 2 offers were sold out.
After the first measurement, the Consumers’ Association looked at the same offers 4 more times within 25 hours.
A large part of the sold-out trips and inaccurate offers turned out to be still on the sites, says the union.
‘It is very good that most travel providers have improved their lives,’ says Sandra Molenaar, director of the Consumers’ Association.
| ‘Consumers are entitled to fair offers. At the same time, it is a pity that not all travel providers have their affairs in order. We have filed complaints about this with the Advertising Code Committee (RCC) and reported this to the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM).’ Finally, the union reports that the offer price at a handful of providers still changes during the booking process.
Molenaar: ‘That remains a persistent problem. Even though the RCC ruled in our favour on this point several times last year. Fortunately, ACM recently imposed penalties on 3 providers for this.’ Photo: Sandra Molenaar, director of the Consumers’ Association.
