Oyo Rooms Bangalore — Mobile Phone Seized by Oyo Rooms hotel staff as security deposit

Address:

Bangalore, Karnataka

My cousin sister had visited Bangalore on 17th April, and I booked a single occupancy room through Oyo Rooms. The room was priced at 1199, with a discount coupon of Rs. 100, it was Rs. 1099. I booked the room, and selected the payment option as "Pay at the hotel". To be sure, I reached the hotel, and asked them if the booking was confirmed. They said yes, but the amount due was Rs. 1199, and coupon codes or discounts information are not with them and the order was incomplete so I have to pay Rs. 1199 (even thought his Tab showed 1099 as amount to be collected from the customer). I requested Oyo Rooms customer support to send me a payment link over email to be sure I book the room in advance and pay Rs. 1099 through Card. After 3 rounds of telephonic calls in 4 hours and promise of "immediate" sending of the payment link, I finally got a payment link after 4 hours. I made the payment immediately. My sister arrived, and we reached hotel. The hotel staff had no information about the online payment. They made us call Oyo rooms, and after talking to the Oyo guy, the receptionist let us in and showed the room, and took our Identity card to be returned back during checkout. Next morning, while checking-out, there was a different lady "Sandhya" who again started the whole story of payment not received (as it did not reflect in her Tablet provided by Oyo). I showed her the transaction SMS, then she changed the story saying "but this payment is for Rs. 1099, for one person, but for 2 people it's 1499. I told her I just came her to pick my sister and I did not stay in the room in the night. Then she changed the story back to "I did not receive any email from Oyo). Then I showed her my transaction confirmation and payment email, with SMS. But she insisted until she gets an official email on "their hotel's email id", she will not proceed with the checkout. We called Oyo, and as per their standard "Callback in few minutes", we called 3 times their customer care, and no one helped us out. Each of their executives is automated robot types who just give a standard response "we are escalating the issue and we will call you back shortly). Since my sister had a flight to catch, and alread 45 minutes of waiting at the counter trying to make Oyo guys talk to the hotel staff were futile as they were all in the process of "responding back in few minutes". Since we were getting late, and I did not have enough cash in my pocket, I offered to the hotel lady to keep my mobile phone (Xiaomi Redmi 4G) worth Rs. 10, 000. She immediately agreed to keep it. And agreed to give a written note that it will be returned after we deposit the Cash, or if Oyo Rooms send them an email with the confirmation that the payment has been completed. The mobile phone was seized, and we left to drop my sister to the airport. I hope my mobile is in safe condition and I hope to get it again. It was an embarrassing situation and a really backward, just like the atrocious landlords in the Mother India days. Oyo is a communication disaster and I would not recommend anyone to use their services. The Oyo guys do not talk to Hotel staff on their phone, nor do the Hotel staff take any responsibility on behalf of Oyo and they ask you to make all the phone calls. It's an unholy marriage between two irresponsible parties and if anything wrong happens in such situation, both parties will keep blaming each other. Please do not use Oyo services AT ALL! They must be inexpensive, buy they are really "CHEAP". I hope my mobile phone is safe with the hotel receptionist.