Which price should a guest see when booking online?

Look at the first price the guest sees

Imagine an inn advertising a one-night stay for £100. Every guest must also pay a fixed £5 booking fee. For that stay, the price to put in front of the guest is £105. Explaining the £5 on the payment screen leaves the earlier comparison with another inn based on the wrong figure.

The Competition and Markets Authority’s price transparency guidance applies when a business presents a product and a price to consumers. That can happen in a social post, an email or a booking page. A guest needn’t be able to pay on that screen for the pricing rules to apply.

Separate the extras a guest chooses

Breakfast is a different proposition if room-only guests can genuinely decline it. Make the choice clear and show the extra cost before the guest adds breakfast. If everyone pays for breakfast, calling it an extra does not make the cost optional.

Walk through one actual booking with the team that manages your website. Start with the advert and check the room listing, the booking provider’s screen and the final total for the same dates and number of people. If a compulsory charge genuinely cannot be calculated in advance, the CMA says customers must be given equally prominent information to work it out.

A booking fee and a deposit do different jobs

Suppose the guest books the £105 stay and the inn takes £25 today towards the bill. That leaves £80 to pay on arrival. Three details answer three different questions for the guest. The stay costs £105, the card will be charged £25 today, and the balance is £80. Giving the deposit the largest type on the page could leave someone unsure how much the room actually costs.

The CMA explains that showing the full price up front still allows a trader to collect it in instalments. Ask whoever manages your reservations how the deposit appears on the confirmation email. A guest who has already paid it should be able to tell what will happen at reception without ringing to check whether they have been charged twice.

Try the same comparison for a two-night stay

If that inn charges £100 a night and the compulsory £5 fee applies once per booking, two nights come to £205. A system that adds the fee to each night would show £210. One that leaves it out would show £200. The one-night example would never expose the difference between a charge per night and a charge per stay.

Use dates when the advertised rate is genuinely available and note how many guests it covers. A couple comparing a weekday offer with a Saturday stay needs to know which dates and room type qualify for the headline rate. Give the person writing the offer those details when you give them the price. It is much easier to explain the terms in the original advert than to answer a string of enquiries about a weekend rate you never intended to offer.