Hotel website Booking.com is misleading consumers by suggesting nearly all the rooms in hotels it advertises are sold out, the Dutch advertising standards authority confirmed on Friday.

The website, which is Dutch in origin, now has 115 offices in 50 countries and books over 625,000 hotel rooms a day.

The advertising standards authority said in April statements such as ‘we only have one room left’ on the Dutch site do not make it clear that the offer only applies to rooms which Booking.com is able to rent out and that the hotel may well have other rooms available.

‘The use of the word “we” does not make it clear enough that the scarcity only applies to the Booking.com website,’ the authority said.

Booking.com appealed against the April ruling but that has now been upheld by the advertising standards authority’s appeal committee.