SOTC Complaints & Reviews

I had booked the tour for South America in May2025 through SOTC vide CGS2503098 on 22/03/2025. As usual, the sales person pushed me to do the up-front payment of INR125, 000/-, which was done immediately. Post that on 25/03/2025, he requested me to change the date as there was no other passengers for my travel date. Thereafter, the company cancelled my trip and confirmed that the amount paid will be refunded in 15 days.

When...

We (me and my wife)had taken SOTCs European Splendour tour from 19th Sept to 30th Sept 2023. We were assured that we will b bearing the cost of visa. When we went for visas we were told that you pay the fees right now, we will refund once visas will be issued.
Two months have been passed since we boarded the tour they have not refunded my amount₹ 16, 475/- despite so many requests at their Rajkot office. The branch manager keeps on telling that its in the pipeline. But how long shall I have to wait? My account is clear and I was told that once I complete the tour I'll get refund. Pl take up my case

On 27th October in Four points Sheraton hotel, Padova Italy- our suitcase was misplaced/lost from the hotel lobby while we were checking out at 8am in the morning.

We informed the reception and SOTC tour manager but there was no help from them, they did not even advise or give us time to file police complaint.

We did get in touch with the hotel and our tour manager also wrote to them but there is no response from them.

As per the insurance policy there is a sum of 500 USD that is assigned for lost baggage. We have been sent the ICICI lombard all required documents and since chasing them to process the claim. The insist on asking for a polic FIR filed in Italy which we do not have as SOTC did not advise us about this, we were not aware of this process. Now we are asking SOTC to send a letter to the insurance company authorising the loss of baggage but they are not doing so. Our sales manager Abhijit Dan, tour manage Sagar Dhumal and SOTC customer care no one is supporting us on this anymore and they have stopped responding.

Our bag had items worth 50000 INR and as we lost them as it was insured, we should be getting the claim amount for the same!

I had booked a SCANDENAVIA TOUR in August 2023. I paid the booking amount of INR 50000 for the same and I was talking to a lady called Shreya Panchmukh[protected] and her manager Dakshita. They sat with my money for two months and then I received a call from them stating that the tour is canceled from their side.

They very conveniently canceled the tour on October 3rd, 2023 and until today, I havent received my refund of the booking amount of INR 50000.

I had paid big amount for a Europe trip for travel in April 2020, the trip was not fully booked and cancelled due to COVID.

I requested multiple times for the refund but no resolution yet. I have created customer care ticket. They say their representative respond within a maximum of one working day. It's been more than a month and after multiple reminder they are not responding anything.

No proper response from the sales representative also. They have been very ignorant.

Dear sir,
I booked group tour of Spain on 11.07.23and paid advance of INR 200, 000. As SOTC even could not arrange visa interview slot till 29.07.23, SOTC agreed to cancel my booking and full refund within 15-20 days on 29.07.23 by e mail. As due date of refund passed 25.08, they again confirm by e mail that by 31.08.23, full refund will be paid pack. Today on 31.08. 2023 also refund is not received and no one is confirming when it will be refunded.

Please refund full amount and also pay intrest for delay in payment.

my payment receipt is RV24CS[protected]. As you do not have facility to upload PDF file, I am not able to upload SOTC e mails. However I am happy to send by e mail. my e mail Id is [protected]@hotmail.com
Please help
Regards
Nishith

My father had booked an holiday package along with 3 members for Kashmir with SOTC during dates of 23sep - 29th sep . This included flight, stay and other logistics under ID - EKWSSL230923
SOTC branch sales rep - Diksha sahni erroneously booked the air tickets for all the 4 passengers for Aug instead of Sep. Upon notifying them about their error they are asking us to meditate and reschedule the flight with the airline directly and also pay the differential cost ! This is an unfair practice on their part which they are not talking any ownership. I expect SOTC to make the corrections in flight schedule as per the itinerary that was agreed upon .

Contract - [protected] / [protected]

1. Delayed Check-in: Despite our voucher indicating a check-in time of 00:00 on July 7th, we were made to wait in the hotel lobby. This forced my 4-year-old and 7-month-old children to sleep in the lobby, which is completely unacceptable. I have attached a picture as evidence of this distressing situation.I strongly urge someone to convey to Ms. Nishita the importance of accepting responsibility for one's mistakes rather than trying to shift blame onto others. Her attempts to explain the concept o[censored]niversal hotel check-in time are irrelevant and contradictory when considering that the SOTC team had sent me a hotel voucher clearly stating the check-in timing as 7th July 00.00. Such unprofessional behavior is utterly unacceptable from a reputed brand like SOTC. Also

2. Lack of Information on Dubai Tourism Tax: We were not informed about the Dubai Tourism Tax beforehand. Neither during our phone conversation nor in any of the emails exchanged did anyone mention this additional cost. This lack of transparency is highly disappointing. Furthermore, when I requested to extend my stay in the same hotel, they refused to change my room, citing the requirement of the Dubai Tourism Fee. This was highly frustrating and unreasonable, considering that I had already paid the full amount for the rooms for a total of three days.

3. Miscommunication Regarding Hotel Details: Despite Ms. Nishita's claim that SOTC had already provided me with the hotel details, I can confirm that the email received on July 6th clearly stated that SOTC would share the hotel and other details at a later time. This was concerning as I had a flight to catch on the morning of July 7th.I would like to emphasize that we did not have the opportunity to check the hotel in advance, as the hotel details were actually sent to us on 6th July at 03:47 pm, not on 23rd June as claimed by Ms. Nishita. I kindly request you to review the email correspondence to verify this information.

4. Ignorance of Hotel Categories: When discussing hotel categories with Mr. Shazaan, I was shocked by his response. He claimed that every hotel in Dubai has spas and night bars, which is not true. I can provide examples of good and decent hotels in Bur Dubai, without spas or night bars, in the 3-star category.

5. Subpar Service at Barbeque Night: At the Barbeque Night, we experienced great embarrassment as we had to stand in a queue to receive food, and each person was only given one piece of barbeque chicken. This level of service is not acceptable, especially considering the amount we paid for the tour. During the Barbeque Dinner, to our dismay, we were instructed to sit on the ground, and to our shock, we discovered tar in our food. We immediately brought this issue to the attention of our guide, Mr. Ali, who promptly intervened and communicated the matter to the local authorities.

6. Unreliable Information on Dubai Tourism Fee: Ms. Pritam assured me that the Dubai Tourism Fee would be waived off, but later changed her statement. This inconsistency and lack of accountability have severely eroded my trust in SOTC's services.

7. Failure to Adjust or Reimburse Previous Payments: It was promised that the amount I had previously paid would either be adjusted in this trip or reimbursed to my account. However, no such adjustment or reimbursement has been made. I am grateful that I did not choose the option of paying the complete tour amount online, as I would have had to chase SOTC for my reimbursement.

8. Lack of Communication on Pick-up Time for Marine Cruise: The itinerary did not mention that we would be receiving other guests on the way, resulting in a roaming around for two hours for the Marine Cruise. This lack of clarity and communication is unacceptable.(itinerary Attached)

9. Non-Delivery of Snack Box and Dates: As per the tour plan, a snack box was supposed to be provided to each person, and dates were to be given to families. However, we only received the snack box during check-out while heading to the airport, and we did not receive the dates at all.The issue at hand is not merely about the absence of dates, but rather the abysmal services and treatment we have received from SOTC. It is inconceivable for any parent to witness their children sleeping in the lobby when we have paid for the rooms in advance.

The overall experience with SOTC has been utterly disheartening, and I am appalled by the level of service received. The treatment my family and I received is far below the standards expected from a reputed brand like SOTC. I regretfully inform you that I will not be recommending SOTC to anyone, be it friends, colleagues, clients, or family members, based on this nightmarish trip.

The only positive aspect of the entire tour was the Desert Safari, organized by Mr. Ali. His exceptional service and efforts made a lasting impression on us, and it is his name that we will remember, rather than associating our experience with SOTC.

I urge Higher Authority to thoroughly investigate these issues and provide a detailed response addressing each concern. I expect a prompt resolution, compensation for the distress caused, and an explanation for the poor service received. I hope that SOTC takes this feedback seriously and makes the necessary improvements to avoid such incidents in the future.

I joined a 10day(16-25 February 2023) tour of Newzealand conducted by SOTC for group of 39 members. I paid Rs. 4, 34, 365/- being cost of tour for me and for my wife. I noticed from my AIS of the Incometax department, under Foreign Travel, that SOTC collected Rs. 45, 57, 820/- from me. On enquiry, the sales manager Mr. Raghubabu told me that my PAN was copied for 18 other members of the group; and he promised me on 22nd June2023 that this...

I have booked for USA Holiday Tours by paying an advance of Rs.3, 66, 000/-. Further I have purchased 3 SOTC holiday gift cards of Rs.50, 000/- each carrying 15% interest. More over already an excess amount of 180 Euro paid for our Europe Tour is also lying in my a/c with them. My file Number is CGS2200573. I have joined the "Glimpses of West Coast(USA) " starting from 19/07/2022 to 25/07/2022 with my family. On my return from the USA tour SOTC, Coimbatore informed me that the cost of the tour was Rs, 3, 89, 500/- and that an excess amount of Rs, 1, 19, 047/- plus 180 Euro is lying in my a/c and this will be refunded. As I have not received the refund, on enquiry with SOTC, Coimbatore, they informed me that the matter is pending with their Mumbai office. Immediately I have sent a mail to Customercare, SOTC, Mumbai requesting for refund of excess amount paid. They confirmed that an excess amount of Rs.1, 34, 120/- is in my a/c after making all adjustments. Instead of refunding the excess amount they asked me to book a New Tour package with them before December 2022 to adjust the excess amount. I have rejected their proposal and requested them to refund the excess amount paid, as I need this money for my medical treatment. During Jan.2023 they asked me to send my Bank a/c details to process the refund, which I promptly did. Instead of sending the refund they sent the settlement details of M/s Vasudevan Srinivas & Swetha Vasudevan (paid during May 2022). I have pointed out this wrong information through mail and over phone and again requested them for refund of excess amount paid. As there was no positive response, I made a complaint against SOTC through Ministry of tourism on 20/02/2023. On 27/02/2023 they informed to the Ministry of Tourism by mail as " We have initiated his refund post deducting applicable charges and will update the Customer." But I have received a mail from SOTC acknowledging my mail dt.04/01/2023. Till date I have not received the refund of excess amount of Rs.1, 34, 120/-, which they confirmed. Kindly help me to get the refund amount of Rs.1, 34, 120/-.

I booked a Dubai trip with this pathetic travel company SOTC.

Even after sharing passport, the pathetic team asked me to pay visa inclusive charges in spite of me having valid US visa stating that they would refund.

After the trip, the pathetic team is asking me to submit bank statement and cancelled cheque. Why on earth, is this team needing my bank statement? The customer representative Akhilesh Thakur is rude on calls asking if my understand what is the meaning of crossed cheque and acts smart, as if he is intelligent and I'm a fool.

Further, before the trip, they asked me to digitally sign a document which had money discrepancies and this cheap team said unless I sign it they will not share hotel vouchers.

Some thing is terribly wrong with these people. Income tax department should raid this pathetic company. They are folowing unusual methods and do not treat customers right. I sent numerous mails asking for supervisors to take action, but those people are silent. What a display of arrogance! The supervisors are Sonali Mahajan and Lalit Pant.

Dear Sir / Madam,

I’m raising this complaint after extreme mental & financial harassment from SOTC group representatives, which has turned our dream vacation of a lifetime into a complete nightmare. I would hence like to bring to your kind attention the malpractices engaged in my SOTC representatives & seek your kind intervention towards resolution of the sufferings we faced.

KEY POINTS FOR ADVERSE EXPERIENCE...

Amount quoted was 421271, but now asking for 4, 83, 034 at the time of final payment.

In March'23, while booking the trip, SOTC quoted by 4, 21, 271.
Now in May'23, while I need to pay final balance, they are asking for 4, 83, 034

Proof are attached.

Attended London plus Europe trip started on 14th April 2023 and ended on 3rd May, 2023.

Lots of complain about SOTC India staff. Following are a few of them:-
1. Asked for Final bill showing GST and TCS amount. so far sent 5 WhatsApp message to Mr Jaffer Choudhary on different dates and also 5 emails to Jaffer Choudhary, Rinku Rani, Aliakbar Jetpurwala, Sarthak Bulsara, Ravi Vaidya and Aseem Bisht but NO ONE CARED TO...

Why sotc not able to confirm receipt of fund. We have been completely cheated by SOTC
1. firstly Mrs.Kajal pushed for 2lacs payment saying visa will be done for europe
2. later been informed that operation team not replying as we lost time we said shift on japan tour.
3. same reason operation team not replying, finally as we are waiting for this holiday for long time we compromise to go for usa
4. They decline to provide further information till full payment
5. now we have done full payment last week on confirmation on payment
6. earlier been informed if gst certificate not required company payment can be done. now account is asking for sponsorship letter which unnecessary costing me tax . i could have paid from my personal account
now they are denying they have not said that. still no confirmation of full payment .
7. till date no confirmation on payment -100pctpayment done
8. we try to contact thru ur another office in lower parel who connected to sotc usa tour manager which was cheap experience that he said first note u need to pay tip in case to tour manager??????????????
instead of solving query raise. such a cheap company
we have been cheated by sotc ... customer paying for their personal holidays to relax in return SOTC giving torture tour.

I need concerned responsible person reply immediately ?????????????????

Else we need to go for legal action as we have been cheated for 17lacs of INR payment

Thanks

SOTC took a deposit of Rs.100, 000 from me on[protected]for a holiday for 2 persons in Jordan. The holiday, which was to start on[protected] was never promoted and never organized. But I was only informed about this on 13th February and was offered a private tour which I refused. They then promised an expedited refund, but are not co.municating with me at all....

Hi Team,
I have booked a trip to turkey with SOTC for 8 days. My sales person was Mr. Mohit from Delhi CP office Branch. At the time of booking he made false commitments about hotel he has shown me a list of 5 star hotels and ask me choose any hotels from the given list. Once I made a 50% payment, he changed his tone and also denied the commitments which he made during sale of package. He said there is no preferences, hotels will...

Hi Team,

I tried to book cruize package with SOTC on the 20th December 22 through their official website. When i attempted to make the payment first time (Transaction ID: STL201222FFD330) after the payment was deducted from my bank account, a Booking failed notification showed up. so i tried again (Transaction ID: STL2012222D6423). this time again the same experience.

i had reached out to the customer service team after 3 days which is normal time taken for such failed payments to get back. after multiple back and forth they came back to me today saying it will not be possible for them to return the duplicate payment. please look into this.

let me know if you need additional details on this.

‘sotc – shivajinagar, pune’ office arranged a ‘customized tour’ to kashmir (4 april 22 to 10 april 22) for six o[censored]s (3 couples) - all senior citizens.
Pre-paid connections of any company – be it jio, airtel, bsnl etc. Don’t work in kashmir. Sotc (Intentionally?) kept us in dark about this while booking the tour. Fortunately, one o[censored]s had a post-paid connection. It was just a five-day trip...

We are 11 family members and we booked tour package to Rameshwaram from Delhi . We asked SOTC in advance for booking but they were not able to book hotels there and booked the trip 2 days before departure, it was then sudden that 1 of our family members booked the accommodation package with Sotc of 2 lakh 30 thousand without flight tickets as they mentioned that they will send link for flight tickets .
When we all came to know about the price we asked the agent to cancel and refund our amount as the package was exceeding our budget, on that he mentioned that there is zero % refund . As per the cancellation policy the amount to be refunded within 30 days of booking, we were about to departure on 22nd December and booked on 20th December, so how could the agent say that there would be no refunds ??
On asking for the refund the agent became aggressive, rude mentioning that why have we assumed that the trip would be cheaper, why have we calculated the amount in advance, it is not his fault that we have no communication in family.
Ofcourse we have to calculate everything in advance in order to pay for our trip as we are working family and have to calculate everything, who is he to comment on our personal lives??, not only this he threatened that he is recording the conversation which is good as that would be helpful to us and when asking him the questions he disconnected the phone because if he was recording then he cannot be aggressive, neither he replied to my questions and When we replied this then he mentioned that we are being abusive but we have not been abusive at all .
He did not give any refund and cancelled our trip on his own because it was a verbal communication that if we are getting refund then we would like to cancel and might plan in future .
We did not email anything of cancellation instead he cancelled from his side and when we rang him again he said we have to pay extra charges and we might get 50% refund on 2 lakh 30 thousand .
We discussed in family and then came to conclusion that we will pay for our trip and we won't cancel the trip because our money will be wasted if there is no redund or 50% refund . We rang the agent again but he mentioned to email him that we would like to postponed but we don't want to postponed, it was the agent mistake that he cancelled the trip on his own, not agreed for refund .
This is the 1st time that we have experienced such a horrific response from this agent .
If the company takes the complaint seriously then we would like to request for full amount refund or would like to fly on same days planned with no extra charges or deductions .

Dr Vinita Singh