The São Paulo judiciary ordered the online travel agency Decolar to pay R$ 10,000 in compensation to a tourist who was the victim of false advertising.
In 2022, the tourist was planning to travel to Toronto, Canada, accessed the website and, based on the available images, made a reservation at the Deluxe Inn Hotel in the city center and paid around R$7,600 with his credit card.
“I thought I had chosen a luxurious and comfortable hotel,” said the tourist, who planned to stay at the hotel for 15 days.
Once there, after a 14hour journey with a flight connection, the tourist found that the hotel did not meet his expectations at all.
“The disappointment came immediately. The facilities were awful, old building, without the look of a hotel, dirty, with overflowing rubbish in the bins, totally different from advertised.”
The tourist said that the room had garbage left by other guests, the lights were burned out, the heater was rusted and the toilet was old and clogged. There was no wifi and the stove didn’t work properly.
“The bed had bed bugs and mosquitoes,” he explained.
The tourist said he called Decolar but the company took no action. “It did absolutely nothing to solve the problem.”
In the defense submitted to the judiciary, the agency explained that it is a travel portal that only mediates between the hotel and the consumer and is not responsible for any failure in the provision of the service. He said the customer signed a contract for the service providing this information.
“The hotels provide the images and are solely responsible for the provision of the service,” says Decolar.
The company explained that they did their part by making the reservation at the hotel. “For copyright infringement [do processo]was not caused by Decolar.”
Judge Monica Di Stasi said in the ruling that Decolar was responsible, yes, under consumer protection law. She explained that the advertising displayed on the website was misleading “given the discrepancy between the images provided and the reality experienced by the tourist”.
Declar can still appeal.
The column could not contact the hotel.