Hotel booking website Booking.com has been criticised by the Dutch advertising standards authority for misleading clients by suggesting they should book quickly because only a few rooms are left.

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

The advertising standards authority said 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.

Marketing expert Max Kohnstamm told the AD the verdict is good news for tourists who are too often being misled into booking as soon as possible.

Booking.com has two weeks to appeal against the ruling.