Cleartrip — Horrible Resort and Fake Promises

Address:	New Delhi, Delhi, 110024
Website:	www.cleartrip.com

I made this booking on 5th April 2017 on clear trip for the property name Fernhill Resort in Chail Himachal Pradesh and the booking amount for 2 rooms for 2 nights paid upfront online was 17516 INR.

When I made this booking, I personally called the Clear Trip number and spoke to Dharmendra, who confirmed that this resort was 200 meters from the main Chail City Market because of which I had made this booking. However to my shock on 7th April when I reached, I realised that the resort was 4.5 Kms from the main city in a Jungle where there was no civilization. We did not even receive a single call from the resort to check, what time are we going to reach for the check in. I went at the resort's reception and there was no security guard, no cameras and not even a single person at the reception. The whole place looked haunted with furniture not in good shape at the reception. After waiting for 10 minutes at the reception, 2 young boys came running and when I told them that we have a booking, they looked surprised and said "Sir, is it a online booking?", to which I replied "yes" and then they said sir please bring your luggage whereas when you book something for the price above, you expect hotel's assistance with your luggage. I asked them to call their manager and they replied that the Manager is on leave and we are the only 2 here. I asked them if the owner was there then they replied that Owner lives in Delhi. I asked them if there were more bookings in the resort, to which they replied, "Yes, there are 4-5 bookings and they are expecting the guests". I asked them to show me those bookings but that poor guy refused and said he does not know how to operate a computer, so could not show me the bookings, which was clearly a lie as there no bookings. I came out and called the Clear Trip customer service and spoke to a lady by the name Seema . While I was explaining my horrible experience to Seema, initially she was doing her best to retain me and did not listen or understood my situation. I explained her that I no longer want to stay in that resort cause it was an isolated one in a Jungle with no civilization. The reasons were, we were 2 couples with a 3 year old kid and the whole reason we agreed was that it was 200 meters from the city which will enable us to buy anything that we might need for ourselves and the kid. Can you imagine, driving 4.5 Kms to buy any necessity item whenever required? Then Seema finally agreed and understood my situation. She said she will call back in 5 minutes and confirm, which she did. Then she called back and said "Sir, please check in" and I again explained her my situation and then again she promised me a call back. I waited for 15 minutes but she did not call, so I had to call and ask for her and this whole to and fro call session went for good 1.5 hours with me and friends with the small kid stranded outside the resort in a Jungle. Then Seema promised that Uday, the manager of that resort is coming to meet us in 15 minutes but no one came after 45 minuets also. Finally got frustrated and moved from that place.

Then finally I got a call from Avinash from the backend team and I had to explain the whole situation but he would not listen and tried convincing me to check in. So, I gave him an open offer that either Clear trip refunds 70% of the money or can provide me another property, to which he refused. He then said promised me a callback which he did then again started convincing him but I had given up and told him that now I wanted a 70% refund and he needs to confirm. He then said, I will speak my with his Marketing Team and come back to me and he did not. After 30 minutes I called him back again and he said "Sir, please check in in some other hotel, while I am working on this" and he promised me a call in 30 minutes. It was getting dark and I felt unsafe and moved from the resort and checked in Hotel Chail Inn in the main city and paid for the rooms there on top of what I had paid to clear trip for my stay at the most horrible property of my life Fernhill Resort.

I waited for 1 hour but Avinash did not call back and I had to call the customer service again to ask for him. When I called, I was told that the case is now being handled by Aditya and I spoke with him and explained him the situation and he agreed with my decision and said he would not have stayed in that resort if he was along with his family. He tried hard talking to the Marketing team and kept asking for more time and finally said that he will come back to me before 9 PM with 100% refund decision. I waited for his call but nobody called. I called the customer service next day in the evening at 6:30 PM and asked for him and he said he tried calling me at 9 PM yesterday but was getting network busy, however, I spoke to my family that evening and had official calls and network was not busy. I will give Avinash a benefit of doubt on this one. Then he said, he is working on the case and will come back to me with the final decision in 1 hour. He called back and said, hotelier is not willing to refund and it is a "No" from Clear trip as well. Then he further said that this is now between me and the Hotelier which is absolutely shocking as I had done the booking through Clear Trip.

It is a clear case of misrepresentation of facts, mental, physical, financial harassment and putting our lives at risk by making us wait in a Jungle to give a final decision. This also clearly shows that Clear Trip is only bothered about their commission that they receive from the bookings and does not verify the facts of the hotels registered with them.