[Resolved]  OYO — Room not provided for 6 hours and refund denied when I booked another hotel myself after 6 hours

Website:

www.oyorooms.com

I made a booking for hotel in Digha through Booking.com on 24th December. The booking was made and it was made through OYO for 25th December 2020.Which means the booking was forwaded to OYO by Booking.com and OYO confirmed the booking. My booking id is [protected].

OYO assigned me a hotel in Digha and sent me SMS to make payment to confirm booking. The hotel name was "SPOT ON 71367 Hotel New Digha International".

I made payment through internet banking and went to the hotel in Digha with family.

Now after journey when I reached hotel during afternoon the hotel manager said they do not have tie up with OYO and refused to honor the bookings. They said they had tie ups but they have broken tie ups weeks back. I tried to convince them that the hotel detail was sent to me and I have already made payment. They rudely answered to check with OYO. And refused to entertain me in any manner. This is the point from where harassment started.

I first then tried to contact the property owner through the number that was given in initial email when booking was made. The call went to the same person who just denied me check in. He again told me to call OYO and refused to honor the bookings.

Then I tried reach coustomer care of OYO. For first hour I was just unable to contact them. I tried to google search also for customer care number and tried on that number. Either the call was busy or it was going on automated voice call. And no matter the options I selected it did not connect to customer care representative.

After few more attempt it connected to a customer care representative. I explained everything to CCR who then again forwarded my calls saying she cannot help. And this again went on and on for several minutes. Every time I reached some representative they use to say that they will be transferring calls to appropriate department. Finally I got frustated and told them I am tired of this and shouted on them that my family and my baby are on road for last several hours..they were already tired from journey and now they are suffering because o[censored]nprofessional behaviour of OYO.During these attempts I received several emails in my inbox confirming that OYO has received my complain of check-in issue and they are working on to resolve the issue. I was having check-in issue which should not have happened since I already made full payment. But me and my family were on road for several hours and OYO was still trying to resolve issue.

Finally after some time I received call from OYO customer care. He said sorry and said that hotel detail has been forwarded on my mobile. I said I already have details on email when I made bookings. Then he said that hotel detail has been updated. I was shocked that after so many hours they updated hotel details without my consent. I made booking after checking the hotel condition online and they assigned new hotel 4 hours after check in time and that too without my consent. And my family was suffering because of them. My baby was continuously crying which made me feel frustated and bad and I got angry as well. But I had no option. I was new to Digha So I tried to follow the location of new asigned hotel that was sent over SMS.

I received this SMS at 4:13 PM which is already too late. I should have booked another hotel rather then watching my family suffer. Yet I allowed them to make my family suffer .

So after several hours of attempt OYO customer care responded and assigned another Hotel. This time the hotel name was "Hotel Sea Palace" as you can see in the SMS screenshot . I followed their map instruction and after great difficulty managed to find this new hotel. I went to this hotel and to my shock this hotel also denied me check in. I told them that I have been confirmed a booking in this hotel but they rudely said they do not have any empty room.

Again after several attmept OYO customer care responded and said they are talking with property owner to assign a room. My check in was at afternoon and by this time it was 5 PM and for so long my family and kid were standing on road in Cold. It was getting darker now and OYO coustomer care kept on telling to wait they have asked property owner to assign a room but room was never assigned.

OYO customer care told me they are on call with property owner and the property owner have agreed to give me a room and instructed their staff to allott me a room. I repeated the same to the hotel staff that were available at that time. But they again refused to honor the bookings and give me a room. I repeated the same thing to customer care several times that hotel staff that are on gate are not ready to give me room. OYO customer care again told me that he is talking with property owner and property owner is asking them to give me room.

And during all this period it became darker. A scene was created in that area. My baby was continously crying and shivering. One of the staff then suddenly took me to another hotel and asked to pay money to a person and said that person will allott room in that hotel. I told him that I have already paid. He replied I will have to pay to get a room and I can get a refund from OYO in 7 days. I informed this to OYO customer care representative who was on phone who then said me that I have already paid and not to pay him. He told me that he is taking with property owner again.

I finally told him that I cannot watch my family suffering any more. If you can solve this in 5-10 minutes then it’s okay else I will look for another hotel. The customer care representative again said that he is putting call on mute as he is talking with property owner. 10-15 minutes passed.Nothing happened. Room was not given to me. So me and my friend searched for another hotel. With great difficulty we managed to get a room in Hotel HANS. That too after explaining our condition to them. The manager was good person and he after some convincing gave me two rooms for Rs 2000 each i.e. total Rs 4000. At this time I told OYO customer care that I could not take this anymore and I have booked a hotel. The customer care again started saying that I must wait 5 minutes as he is talking with property owner. I said I will talk about this in Kolkata when I return. I can’t wait whole night for your property owner to give me room.

Now we had to extend our stay in Digha because our whole day was wasted. We booked room, the hotel denied check in, we waited, OYO assigned another hotel without our consent, the new hotel also said they have no empty room and we kept on requesting and OYO customer care kept on saying they are in talk with property owner who is ready to give room.

If property owner was ready to give room then why were we not given room immediately?

Why wrong hotel was assigned initially?

Why my family had to wait on road for hours to get a room whose payment was already done?

Whose mistake is this that my baby got ill due to sitting outside on road for hours?

Why would I have to wait till night hoping that OYO assigned hotel staff would give me a room?

And why a new hotel was assigned only when I made complain to OYO on reaching first Hotel?

Just saying sorry is not enough. Because OYO representatives are saying sorry. They do not feel sorry. May be it is because a normal man can not do anything then to suffer at the hands o[censored]nethical beaviour. A busines venture can harass common people as per their wish?

Does law allow this? Does law expect me to wait indefinitely until I am assigned room by OYO. ?

10 minutes ..30 minutes 1 hour..how long does OYO expect us to wait? I got this answer when I reached Kolkata.

I reached to OYO customer care again and asked for refund. The OYO customer care said to reach out to Booking.com for refund.

Where as in the booking confirmation email I receive instruction that all payment will be handled by property owner. And the payment I made was directly to OYO as you can see in the screenshot attached in this email.

Nevertheless I reached out to Booking.com and asked to look into the matter for refund. They said payment was made to OYO. They can’t refund it. But they agreed to take this further and investigate. They asked me several proofs. I shared with them all the documents that I was having and followed with them for several hours continuously for 3-4 days.

Finally Booking.com told me that OYO customer relation manager has said that property owner was ready to give room but customer did not like the room and so customer did not check in. While I have enough in person evidence to prove that no room was shown to me. I was only told by Hotel sea palace staff at the gate that room is not available. My friends and my wife were there as a witness. OYO must have customer care call recording as well. Not only this, a scene was created and so many local people got to know about this. Not only this hotel HANS where I made booking myself later on also gave me room because I was harassed by OYO and I was in emergency and in desperate need of a room. My family was suffering in cold hungry. They could not even go to washroom.

Then I again called OYO customer care and asked why they said wring information. After several rounds of talk with OYO customer care I got an update from them that according to them property owner was ready to give me room but I denied so I do not qualify for refund and termed me NO SHOW. As if I was not the one who was waiting for room and was harassed by them. They also forwarded a no show invoice.

Now I want to know how can you deny refund when you assigned new hotel at 4:13 PM without my consent. It was already too late. I did not check the new hotel earlier if it was clean hygenic or not. I booked a different hotel. You made me suffer and then assigned one hotel of your choosing and then that hotel also kept me waiting. Yet they say they will not give refund.

Is this how easily a business venture can harass common people in our country? Should every common people remove the word “Honesty” from their dictionary? This is what appears from the bevaiour of OYO in my experience.

Would I ever be able to get my refund?
OYO customer care seems to have no account for 6-7 hours delay and the harassment they caused to me and my family. And when I finally booked hotel myself after 6 hours of waiting to ease suffering of my family then they said you will not get refund as their propery owner was now ready to give room.

Is this behaviour with consumer legal?
Do I deserve refund in the eyes of law?