Trading standards body hits out at ‘misleading' guides

By Christina Golding

Hotel guides that use paid-for entries but fail to make a declaration on the front cover are "misleading" consumers into believing they are independent, says the Institute of Trading Standards Administration (ITSA).

Concern over guides has prompted ITSA chief executive Alan Street to put the matter high on the agenda at his next meeting with consumer affairs minister Nigel Griffiths. The ITSA is the association of trading standards officers.

Street has already contacted the Advertising Standards Authority but has found that its rules do not apply to guidebooks.

The ITSA's interest in the guides follows a controversial article in the Bookseller by journalist Adam Raphael, a shareholder in the Good Hotel Guide. The article sparked an outcry from publishers after Raphael described some guides as little more than "glossy promotion for hotels which paid up to £3,000 to be included and often wrote their own blurb".

In response to Raphael's comments, managing director of Johansens hotel guides, Andrew Warren, slammed the criticism, highlighting Raphael's "financial interest" in attacking the guidebook market.

Johansens, which claims it turns down many hotels, has altered its 1998 guides so that its declaration about subscriptions appears on the back cover instead of the inside sleeve.