Did they say it was an older macbook? At the very least they should try what i said before assuming it won't work...
Any Macbook with a real HDMI output should play audio just fine through the HDMI the way I said unless it's broken.
I think maybe you are confused and talking about the old miniport to hdmi "adapters", in which case you would be right. Usually anything that is "whatever to hdmi adapter" doesn't carry sound. It seemed like they were using a real hdmi cable.
Sorry for sounding snarky just want to give them a chance to try it before throwing the tip out the window knee-jerk, or confusing unnecessarily.
If it's a real HDMI port and cable, it should carry audio fine and you can hold down the option key to select input/output options.
If it's some sort of display port to hdmi adapter, and doesn't have a real HDMI port like with older macbooks, you're totally right. They'll have to use the audio out.