In this Global age, we all tend to rely on travel websites to book our stay during a holiday, which helps us plan our itinerary and ensure a stress-free check-in. We tend to read reviews, view photos of the place before paying and then avail all the offers we can get, don't we?
Have you ever wondered, what if the stay you have booked doesn't exist? In a recent viral incident, a group of 9 friends who had travelled to Pondicherry after booking their hotel stay on the 24th of December started living a nightmare when they realised that the OYO 74612 Royal Plaza Boarding & Lodging they booked didn't exist. The hotel had been shut for the last one year as per Google Reviews posted by other travellers. They had done the OYO booking through Make My Trip.
Mr Abhishant Pant, one of the people involved in the incident, shared his experience on Linkedin by writing to the CEO of OYO - Mr Rohit Kapoor about the whole incident. The post was titled " The horror of staying at OYO: I had the worst experience in hospitality last night 24th Dec".
Mr Pant wrote about the lack of property review mechanism, customer service and complete lack of empathy by OYO as the key grievances. The customer handling team was not well equipped to answer his queries or sort out his issue due to which he had to make 40 + calls at - 11-12 am in the night and book a costly hotel due to the holiday season.
He went on to share that he also had a cancellation incident with OYO earlier in the past and will not be booking an OYO hereafter. After the mental agony, they have decided to file a case against OYO.
Find the original post here. The incident prompted an apology by the CEO and the founder.
To conclude, this incident should be an eye-opener for travel websites to have better customer service as they are responsible for their clients. They should carefully evaluate the properties listed. Surprisingly all the websites still show the property as available.
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