Three complaints were upheld by the ASA after clients were charged a cancellation fee for properties in Dubai booked on separate dates.

Alpha Holidays, which trades as Alpha Rooms, responded that the complainants had not been charged a cancellation fee, but did not provide the ASA with details of its policy.

The ASA said: “The complainants had provided the ASA with emails from Alpha Holidays, which showed that they had initially attempted to charge the complainants cancellation fees, before later offering them credit vouchers for the value of their bookings.

“Because consumers would understand the claim ‘Free Cancellation until [DATE]’ to mean that they would be refunded, with no charges, should they wish to cancel their holiday booking before the date stated in the claim, and we understood that was not the case, we concluded that the ad was misleading.”

Alpha Rooms was told not to use the ad again in its current form.