But the booking process of the website, which is owned by a
consortium of European airlines, was legally sound, according to
legal experts at OUT-LAW.COM. The mistake, it seems, was by the
hotel.
Robert McMahon of Worcester told OUT-LAW that he had already
booked a November flight to Morocco and was seeking accommodation
when he tried Opodo. He spotted rooms priced at £1.50 a night in
the Golden Tulip Farah Marrakech and booked a weekend break. He
received an email immediately that said: "Thank you, your booking
with Opodo is confirmed."
He returned to Opodo and booked five rooms for a 29-day period
in January, paying £250 for accommodation that should have cost
£8,000. Again, he received confirmation by email.
Fearing that the booking was too good to be true, McMahon
telephoned Opodo. The company acknowledged that the price was a
mistake, but confirmed that the deal had been sealed. McMahon said
the hotel has also confirmed that it will honour the booking.
An Opodo spokesperson told OUT-LAW: "All of our hotels load
their own rates and availability or they have a central reservation
company that does it on their behalf. In the Marrakech instance
either the hotel themselves or their head office loaded an
incorrect rate. We contacted their head office as soon as we
noticed this on our site who then changed it."
McMahon believes that others took advantage of the bargain
price. The Golden Tulip did not return OUT-LAW's call for comment
and Opodo's spokesperson said the company does not disclose booking
information.
Contractually, Opodo escapes responsibility, according to Gavin
McGinty, an e-commerce lawyer with Pinsent Masons, the law firm
behind OUT-LAW.COM. "The process works well for Opodo and the
customer," he said. "Opodo makes clear in its conditions that,
where you book a hotel only, Opodo is acting as an agent for the
hotel – and that the contract is between the hotel and you. Opodo
is not a party to the contract."
McGinty explained that both Opodo's own conditions and separate
'room conditions' are built into the e-commerce process when a user
makes a booking. The 'room conditions' appear to be default
conditions that can be tailored to each hotel that is advertised on
the site.
"The room conditions are where the hotels can deal with the
risks of pricing errors. Golden Tulip would do well to amend these
room conditions, to protect it against this sort of problem in
future," said McGinty. "Pricing errors can and will happen, but
it's easy to get the process and the small print right to avoid
pricing errors becoming costly mistakes."
The hotel's room conditions do make clear that a credit card is
charged for the entire value of a reservation at the time of a
booking; but they do not offer the hotel an opportunity to cancel
in the event of a pricing error.
According to McMahon, Opodo did more for him than they had to.
"They told me that if I had any problems when I went over to
Marrakech [in November], they'd cover the costs of alternative
accommodation. They were really good about it."
