Southern Travels Pvt Ltd — Bad service on tour package

Address:	New Delhi, Delhi, 110005
Website:	www.southerntravelsindia.com

I had booked a package tour from rishikesh, srinagar, rampur, kedarnath, hardwar with sothern travels which includes 10 seater tempo traveller that takes across the place, hotel booking, helicopter booking from phata to kedarnath and back for 7 persons.
The group had 4 senior citizens (My parents and in laws) aged from 65 to 77. Southern travel was intimated on this and the tour was so planned to have least of inconvenience to the elders.
I had booked in april for may 22nd to 28th travel and paid 100% in advance. Details are as follow
Group booking ticket, enq 01554580, pnr no [protected], ticket no grp018214 booking date 4/4/2016, amount rs 157538/-
The co-ordinator - ritu kumar, sonakshi helicopter booking mr deepak, from southern travels.

Grievances
1. The driver contact number shared by ritu kumar on 21st may mail
Mr govind
Dl1vc1956
[protected] — error
2 from 16th may i have been chasing ritu kumar every day for the hotel vouchers and gave an ultimatum on 20th may by 5 pm to share with me before the end of the day. At 6 30 pm on not receiving it, i spoke to sonakshi and she shared the vouchers. Attached are the same. Please note the next day we were travelling.

Plan
22may (Sun) arrive dehradun. Meeting and greeting at the airport. Transfer to vehicle to proceed to rishikesh (20 kms). Stay-rishikesh

I was trying to reach the driver for 2 days and the given number mentioned that "it was switched off". I had to call up southern travel office after landing at jolly grant airport to connect to the driver

23 may (Mon) in rishikesh day for sports activity (By own). Visit shivananda ashram, ram jhoola, swarg ashram, geeta ashram, lakshman jhoola (If time permits). Stay rishikesh

We completed the activities (Own) by 10 30 am. The vehicle was allowed only at dayananda ashram and veer bhadra temple. Rest of the places, geeta ashram etc we had to manage by our own calling an auto as big vehicles were not allowed. We had to complete photo metric formalities and the vehicle needed 3 hours to complete its permit formalities., these were a surprise to us and we lost time in these planning

24 may (Tue) proceed from rishikesh to devprayag (74 kms) to srinagar (39 kms). Stay srinagar

At srinagar we reached hotel samrat and understand that there was no booking for us. Reason given "no email has been sent by southern travels" to the hotel. We spoke to sonakshi who was to sort it out (If required even move us to another hotel). 7 o[censored]s had to manage in a room that had 4 beds. We had 4 senior citizens over 65 to 77 years and had to put up with these adjustments. Also alternate accommodation would mean travel 20 km backward to srinagar

25 may (Wed) srinagar to rampur (110 kms / 2.5 hrs) stay rampur

Rampur stay was booked but had to adjust in 2 rooms (Requested by hotel) we agreed to it. On reaching rampur we could see the kedarnath trip had lot more challenges and uncertainties. Speaking to deepak mohanty a day before he confirms to reach rampur and things are fine. Contrary to that within 15 min of arrival we could sense the delays faced by other passengers and it was sure to delay our trip. We spoke to gm (Southern travel) - navin who assured that by 8 30 pm things would be clear. Not having the confidence we met deepak by 6 pm who confirmed that the 7 pax were given "night stay" at kedarnath which we had never asked for. The helicopter booking was done on 24th may with arrow (Helicopter service) although we had paid well in advance. On challenging deepak we were told to speak / meet mr pankaj of arrow who could try to accommodate the same day return. Alternately deepak suggested to be present at the helipad at 5 am and request arrow to accommodate immediate flight. We had to go 10 km away to phata on 25th may to get this sorted out with arrow. On meeting pankaj from arrow we got the clarity on the situation. 1) whether night stay / same day return was to be decided by southern while booking. Out of 32 px flying on 26th may only 5 were allotted same day return. This obviously were other passengers and not us. Deepak was well aware of this. 2) as per arrow gm, deepak had not met them for 3 days and every day they used to send pax to the helipad at 5 am who lose patience and temperament with arrow employees. 3) further we were told the night temperatures at kedarnath was -5deg c which was being underplayed at rampur hotel panchavati and deepak as ("a little less than rampur" and will drop only if it rains). 3) we returned to navin and deepak by 10 pm and confronted that we would cancel the kedarnath trip if we had our parents to night stay at kedarnath. Alternately if deepak would have informed us on 24th we could have moved to badrinath and skipped kedarnath.
To this navin pushed deepak to allot the 5 (Same day return ticket) to us and manage the other passenger. We had to split 5 paassenger on same day and 2 at night stay. This was quiet a tensed up situation by 1 person (My wife) to manage 4 elders (65 - 77 years) all alone. It was a panic situation and my father was shivering in cold. Temp below 10deg c at 4 pm at kedarnath

26 may (Thu) rampur – kedarnath – rampur stay rampur

The 2 o[censored]s had to manage night stay (At our cost rs 1000/-) and face the rough weather - 3 deg c at night. This also delayed our plan by 1 day to leave rampur

27 may (Fri) rampur to haridwar (112 kms / 3 hrs) have a holy dip in the river ganges at hari-ki-pauri, see ganga temple and mansa devi temple by rope way (If time permits). Stay haridwar

The schedule mentioned by ritu kumar was in 3 hours reach haridwar which takes minimum 8 hours. We got the helicopter at 9 am the next day inspite of reporting at 5 30 am. Due to this we reached haridwar at 5 pm allowing us to see ganga aarti. To meet this timeline we had to skip lunch and not take break for natures call. With elders you can imagine this ride was a night mare.
On arriving at haridwar at clarkes inn we were told that southern travel had not booked any rooms for us. We were accomodated in 2 rooms. We could not go to any other visit at hardwar.

28 may (Sat) transfer to railway station to connect for onward destination. Tour concludes
The vehicle and the driver govind was the only good thing that we experience in this trip

Overall we are now not sure why have we paid to southern travels? Is it for service or for invitation of pain and trouble

I will want to claim back complete refund of rs 157538/- from southern travels