[Resolved]  Stayzilla — Hotel booking : inefficient service and overcharging.

Address:	110019
Website:	Stayzilla

We booked on 28 may 2016 a double-bed room for us for 4th & 5th june 2016 in hotel hemkunth at kasauli, himachal pradesh, through stayzilla. as per the online booking requirement, one could pay 30% of the charges as advance for the booking. accordingly, we made 30% payment.
However, we were contacted by one stayzilla executive the same afternoon informing that the hotel would not confirm the booking without 100% payment. so, we paid the balance 70% to stayzilla the same afternoon.
We were informed by a stayzilla executive on 29 may 2016 that the rooms in hotel hemkunth were sold out and the hotel did not confirm the booking because of late payment.
This was an extreme harassment by stayzilla after 100% payment by us for the hotel room booking.
After lot of persuasion since our tour programme was getting haywire, one goodhearted stayzilla executive arranged for alternative accommodation nearby.
After we reached kasauli on 4 june 2016, we visited hotel hemkunth and were informed that booking for 4th & 5th june were available. they made no comment when enquired why our booking through stayzilla was not confirmed. this response or no-response pointed towards unreliability of stayzilla for a customer.
Our bad experience with stayzilla did not end there.
After we made 100% payment for hemkunth hotel, we made another booking through stayzilla for a double-bed room in ridge view hotel in shimla, himachal pradesh, for stay from 6 to 8 june 2016 (with check-out on 9 june) and to avoid subsequent harassment, paid 100% charges in advance.
When we checked-in at ridge view hotel in shimla on 6 june, we were given a very small room with only one small window opening to a 3ft wide open space between two buildings. there was a double bed in it but the room was very smelly and suffocating. we objected to stay in that unhealthy room but the hotel manager said that for stayzilla that was the room. but we insisted for change of room else we would have no alternative but to cancel our stay in spite of any amount that would be charged for cancellation. we requested the manager to talk to the owner of the hotel.
At the same time, we contacted one stayzilla executive (by chance we had taken his personal mobile number. stayzilla executives can not be called back at the official phone numbers through which they call customers), explained the situation and requested for help. the kind executive forwarded the request to concerned executive for that hotel.instead of extending help, the executive handling that hotel put the responsibility for the bad room on us. she said we should have checked the room before booking.
She washed stayzilla hands for the problem. we felt very bad due to the situation and the treatment meted out by stayzilla to its customers.
We do not want to take services of stayzilla anymore. we do not recommend stayzilla to anybody.
Considering the booking status and discussing with the owner, the ridge view hotel manager offered to us another room which had large window to the open and we readily accepted it.
We came to know later on that as against the charge of rs 1, 469 per day that we paid stayzilla for the room, the actual charge for the room was rs.1, 089 per day if we had taken it directly from the hotel. it means, stayzilla charged 35% extra over the actual room charge/rent.