Cleartrip — Hotel Booking not honored

Address:

Krishna, Andhra Pradesh

Trip ID: [protected]. I made a booking on 30th Oct 2014, reserving the room for 6th Dec 2014 to 7th Dec 2014 in Leela Grand Inn, Vijayawada. Reached the hotel at 9.30 pm, receptionist says "All travel guru and clear trip bookings are cancelled, we have informed them in advance". I didn't get any email or call or text from cleartrip or hotel. I tried calling clear trip four times, but couldn't get a live person to talk; after 5 minutes or so of 'music', the call drops. Ended up running around, without knowing the language, and after walking to 3 different hotels, found a place to lie down, which is about a km from the original hotel. Have receipt to prove it. 7th Dec is a muhoort day, I was in vijaywada to attend wedding, naturally hotels were full. Sent a mail in the night to cleartip and got auto response, promising a reply, but none has come yet. Yesterday (08/12/14) got through to clear trip, the lady rep listened, put me on hold, said she tried to contact the hotel but couldn't reach, and asked me to call again. After protests, she said clear trip will call back in 'some time'. Asked for a firm time line, and am promised 24 h. After 24 h, (09/12/14) I call again, another lady picks up, same story repeats, and she says they will 'definitely' get back in 24h. Thanks to android phone and auto call record, all these conversations are saved. And all I want is just a refund, we are not in the 'punitive damages, penalty, compensation for the mental harassment' etc. The word 'sorry' doesn't exist with the hotel reception, and you have to use an excavator to get that from cleartrip. 7th dec being a busy, muhoort, day, it is possible that the hotel took more than they can handle and bumped me. I don't want to find out how much blame goes to hotel and how much to cleartrip. The sheer incompetence exhibited subsequently is amazing. It may be a deliberate ploy on cleartrip's part to stall the refund. have been booking flights regularly through cleartrip, for the past 4 years. Clear trip probably 'gained' a little more than thousand rupees in this, and lost a loyal customer for ever.