Advertising Standards Authority: The UK’s independent regulator of advertising across all media

Press release - 21 July 2025 07:19

ASA upholds 4 separate rulings against Barry Hurley's Luxury Lodge Estates Company

All four Advertising Standards Authority complaints against Luxury Lodge Estates advert in Sunday Times Magazine upheld

Luxury Lodge Estates Company

Luxury Lodge Estates Company Ltd is a "Holiday centres and villages" business formed in 2015. It's only director is racehorse loving businessman Barry Thomas Hurley. Hurley is also director of much-scrutinised timeshare company: Seasons Holidays PLC.

Click to see Barry Hurley celebrating 2014 win for his racehorse, Captain Cat

Hurley's companies have been the subject of controversy among their customers. For example in 2021 the national media widely reported on what Seasons clients described as being forced out of the timeshares they loved at Slaley Hall resort in Northumberland, despite having ongoing ownership contracts.

Coincidentally, those same, 'forcibly vacated' Slaley Hall lodges are now being sold as expensive luxury units via Hurley's other company, Luxury Lodge Estates Company.

There have also been multiple accusations against Seasons Holidays, regarding illegal contracts and sales methods.

Contentious advert

Luxury Lodge Estates placed an advert in the Sunday Times Magazine on 17th June 2024, titled: "Luxury residences available across 5-star resorts in the UK, invest from £295,000".

The advert appeared to guarantee a substantial financial return: “Up to £83,454 over two years guaranteed return based on historical success”

This promise was continued in further advert text: “Own a luxury coastal lodge." "Benefit from our sublet plan with guaranteed returns."

A former Seasons owner (who wishes to remain anonymous) took umbrage to the advert, which they considered to be misleading, and complained to the Advertising Standards Authority on four separate counts.

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)

Advertising is a powerful force and influences human beings to spend huge amounts of money every year. The Advertising Standards Authority's mission is to ensure that, in the UK at least, those adverts are clear, that they are honest, and are not misleading.

The four complaints registered against Hurley's Luxury Lodges advert were:

That the claim “Up to £83,454 over two years guaranteed return” was misleading, because the ad stated the return was based on historical success, which was not therefore guaranteed.The ASA challenged whether the ad was misleading and breached the Code.
That the advert failed to illustrate the risks of the investment
That the advert did not make clear that the advertised return related to rental income under the sublet guarantee, rather than the value of the investment
That the advert did not make clear that additional fees and charges applied.

Luxury Lodge Estates refuted each complaint.

The ASA ruled against Luxury Lodge Estates in each complaint.

The several page ASA Assessment of the complaints about the Luxury Lodge advert used the phrase "did not make clear" eight times.

The phrase "the ad was misleading and breached the Code" was used three times.

The ASA also used the telling descriptors:"did not make sufficiently clear" "we considered it was ambiguous" "we considered it was not sufficiently clear" "none of those details of how the guarantee worked were made clear in the ad" "we concluded that it was misleading" and finally "did not make the nature of the guarantee clear."

Luxury Lodges were banned from reproducing the advert in its current form and were issued a raft of correctional instructions.

Expert comment

Greg Wilson is the CEO of European Consumer Claims (ECC), the leading claims company currently challenging illegal and unfair behaviour in both the timeshare and lodge industries.

"Our experts at the Holiday Park Advice Centre (ECC's Lodge and Holiday Park division) have studied this ASA ruling and we unreservedly agree that advertising like this is unacceptable," says Greg. "

"Luxury Lodge Estates are asking people to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds via what the ASA has ruled to be unclear, misleading, Code-breaching and ambiguous advertising. That seems to us to be a highly cavalier attitude towards what are, in most cases, life changing amounts of money.

"Lodge and holiday park businesses in general are garnering a similar negative reputation to that of the timeshare industry in previous decades.

"In our experience this is because, despite much lobbying, successive UK governments have failed to pass stricter legislation to curb holiday park behaviour in the way they have with the timeshare sector.

"Park operators can charge more money than people can for timeshare, and are subject to less regulations. Great for them. Not so great for the consumer."

Have you been misled or mis-sold by a holiday park?

In many cases, skilled legal professionals can obtain financial recompense for people who have been unfairly treated by Lodge or Holiday Park companies.

Get in touch with our team for a free, confidential, no-obligation consultation.