The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) made the ruling after receiving a complaint that an all-inclusive holiday to Spain advertised in National Holidays’ brochure was “misleading” because lunches were not included in the price.

Leeds-based National Holidays said in its response to the complaint that the term all-inclusive was “used by many holiday companies, but believed the meaning varied depending on what individual companies were offering”.

National Holidays also referred to an online dictionary description that stated that “all or most meals” had to be included for a holiday to be considered as all-inclusive.

But the ASA upheld the complaint because it understood that all-inclusive was “a widely used term to describe holiday packages or resorts where the lodging, meals, soft drinks, most alcoholic drinks and gratuities were included in the holiday price”.

“We considered that consumers would therefore understand the claim all-inclusive to mean that all their meals, including lunch, would be included in the package,” said the authority in its decision.

The ASA said the advert must not appear again in its current form and told National Holidays that the term all-inclusive should only be used if all meals are included in the holiday package.