Tour Travel Complaints - Travel Agent Complaints

Travel Complaints

There are various modes of transportation in India be it through air, sea or land. Indian transportation, due to its immense population, is one of the most widely used in the world.

For traveling within India people generally prefer to rent a car or travel via train or bus as they deem convenient. Ola and Uber are prime examples of this. These startups have skyrocketed and are one of most used traveling apps in the India.

Meanwhile, many people prefer to travel via plane as it saves times. For this they either book the ticket through the website directly or look for agents to do the same.

Apart from big names there are some private travel agencies in Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata etc, which try to lure customers by offering them lucrative discounts. Travel agent frauds are quite prevalent in India. The most common travel agent/agency complaints include refund not provided, hotel denying check-in, fake promises etc.

Travel complaints have a sense of urgency and responsibility attached to them because no one wants to board a late flight or wants to stay in low-quality hotel.

We all want our travels and trips to be smooth right from the beginning. And if something does not go as per our expectations, the mood gets spoiled!

Therefore, it brings a significant responsibility on the shoulders of the travel companies to solve the issues faced by their customers. One should only book their hotels/flights via trustworthy sites to avoid getting duped. However, sometimes even these reputed travel companies commit an error.

In this article, we have covered the common travel complaints that are faced by customers and how you can resolve them.

But first lets check out the famous travel companies in India

Famous Travel Companies in India

1. Make My Trip
Make my Trip is one of the leading online travel companies in India. In 2000 it was founded by Deepak Kalra and had its headquarters in Gurugram, Haryana.

They have more than 14 company-owned travel stores in India and have over 30 franchisee-owned travel stores in India. They also have offices in Dubai, Phuket, Bangkok, New York, Kuala, and Lumpur.

2. Yatra:
Founded by Manish Amin, Sabina Chopra, and Dhruv Shringi in 2006, Yatra.com is the pre-eminent Indian online travel agency. It is based in Gurugram, Haryana. According to the sources in 2012, Yatra became the second-largest online travel service provider company in India.

3. OYO:
Oyo rooms, popularly known as Oyo hotels and rooms and stylized as OYO, is the fastest and largest growing hospitality chain in India. They worked on the franchising and leased system, which fortunately turned out to be the best for the company. Founded by Ritesh Agarwal in 2013, OYO gained much popularity right from the beginning.

4. GOIBIBO:
Subsidiary of Make My Trip Limited, Mauritius Ibibo, is a travel organization in 2006 by Ashish Kashyap. In 2013 Goibibo made it among the top five most trusted e-commerce brands in India.

5. HappyEasyGo:
Happy Easy Go is one of the emerging online travel company founded by Boris Zha in 2017. In 2019 it became the second-largest online travel booking platform in India and had more than 10 million customer bases all over the world. It has its headquarters in Gurugram, Shanghai, Chengdu, Hong Kong, and Singapore. During late 2018 HappyEasyGo established its hotel business.

6. Thomas Cook:
Thomas Cook (India) Ltd has its headquarters in Mumbai and caters to all the travel related requirements from visas to foreign exchange. They established themselves in India in 1881 and expanded its business to all the nearby countries.

7. Clear Trip:
Clear Trip earlier was known as Clear Trip Travel Services Private limited is a universal online travel company established in 2016. It has its headquarters in Dubai and Mumbai. In India, they started with a vision of making travel simple by bridging the gap between the Indian hospitality and travel sector. It was founded as an air and hotel aggregator by Stuart Crighton, Mathew Spacie, and Hrush Bhatt.

8. Travel Guru:
Travel Guru is India’s leading and growing travel website. It offers flights, holiday packages, and hotels at the best prices; they aim to make your trip smooth and convenient.

9. Travel Triangle:
Founded by three IIT graduates Sanchit Garg, Prabhat Gupta, and Sankalp Agarwal. It is India’s first fully stacked Holiday Marketplace that connects verified travel agents and travelers. It was founded in 2011 and competed with companies such as Thrillophilia. It is a platform that is trusted by many.

10. Travelocity India:
It is rated as one of the best online travel portals in the world and perfectly caters to the local needs of the people by launching specialized programs. In India, they cater to both business and leisure requirements.

Types of Travel Complaints

1. Tickets canceled, but money is not refunded:
One of the significant problems that are being faced by customers of major travel companies is that they cancel the tickets, but money is not credited to their bank account. This is the most common issue faced by almost all the consumers in cities like Pune, Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru.

During COVID-19 times, many have reported on the internet that they have booked tickets, and they got canceled due to the pandemic. However, the companies did not refund the amount. Either they are saying that they have refunded the amount, or instead, they are offering a credit voucher.

2. No refund for flights canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic:
Due to the global pandemic, suddenly, flights were canceled. It was reported by customers of many major travel companies that they did not get their refund; however, the airlines did return the full booking amount. Many customers were upset because the travel companies did not inform them about the refund from the airlines.

3. Partial refund for the flights canceled due to COVID-19:
Many customers reported that they did not receive the full amount of flights they booked pre-corona. However, airlines have refunded the entire amount, but travel companies did not credit the whole amount; instead, they deducted a certain amount without giving any valid reason.

4. No refund against booked packages:
Many planned trips in June assuming that pandemic will end, but in the wake of current times, still, the tourism industry is on hold.

As people booked packages for traveling and now are requesting for a refund, but many companies are simply denying it.
However, many customers are disturbed with it because, in these uncertain times, they are struggling so much to get their refund.

5. Unable to connect with customer care service:
Many customers from significant travel companies face this very issue when they contact the customer care, they are not entertained, or their complaints are not correctly handled.

Many faced this particular issue while they were contacting the customer care, and their complaints were not appropriately welcomed or they were not able to connect with them.

6. Fraudulent booking agents:
Many travel companies have their booking agents, but some fraudsters just dive in and cheat people.
Many customers from significant companies, including Make My Trip and Yatra complained that they had been cheated by fraudsters in the name of these companies, and they have demanded a refund from the company.

7. Rescheduling of flights due to COVID-19:
Due to Corona pandemic, many people had to reschedule their flights, but travel companies are not helping them or are not considering their request.

8. Over billing by travel companies:
The most common types of complaints regarding Ola and Uber include over billing issues and not returning the left item in the cab. But you can try contacting the customer care number of Ola which is 098842437 and customer care of Uber which is 1300091272.

How to resolve travel complaints?

1. File support ticket/send an email:
You can always contact travel companies through their official website by going to their contact us section and by sending them an email. Customer service emails of some leading travel companies are:
Yatra- support@yatra.com
Make My Trip- care@makemytrip.com
Happy Easy Go- cs@happyeasygo.com
Clear Trip- customersupport@cleartrip.com
Goibibo- travel@goibibo.com
Travel guru- service@travelguru.com

2. Call Customer support:
One of the perfect ways to directly come in contact with the travel company is by contacting it through phone call for customer support. All these well-known travel companies have a 24*7 working customer care number which helps in resolving complaints as they value customer feedback. The customer care number of some of the leading travel agencies and hospitality companies in India are :

Cox and Kings Customer Care Number - 1800 209 0400
Thomas Cook Customer Care Number - 1800 209 9100
Club Mahindra Holidays Customer Care Number - 044 6695 3435
Expedia Customer Care Number – 800-319-4834
Yatra Customer Care Number - 0124 3040500
Goibibo Customer Care Number - 1800 208 1060
Makemytrip Customer Care Number - 1800 102 8747
Travelguru Customer Care Number - +91 92111 77444
Oyo Customer Care Number - 093139 31393
RedBus Customer Care Number - 1860 121 2102

3. Report to the airlines/hotel directly:
As we have seen above, many customers have reported that the airlines and hotels have issued a refund, but the travel companies have not refunded the money in the bank accounts. It is always better to contact the airlines or hotels directly if the companies don’t issue a refund by time. You can contact the airlines and hotels by calling them on their customer care number or by sending the email.

4. Send Legal Notice:
Consumers can send legal notices to travel company in case it is unable to resolve his complaint. It is one of the efficient ways to handle the issue legally. Check below to know how to send a legal notice to travel company?

Step 1: Firstly, get a legal notice drafted by a lawyer.
Step 2: Check it properly and make sure it is signed by lawyer.
Step 3: Keep a copy of it for future purposes.
Step 4: Send the legal notice to travel company by registered post.
Step 5: Keep the slip or delivery report for evidence.

5. File consumer forum case:
Consumer forum deals with consumer complaints and you should approach consumer forum if you feel that your rights as a consumer have been violated.

If travel company is not responding to your complaints even after sending legal notice by a lawyer then you should file a case against it in a consumer court.

Here is how you can file a case in the consumer court?

Step 1: Intimate the aggrieved party via legal notice.
Step 2: Draft the consumer complaint
Step 3: Attach all the relevant documents and proofs to support your complaint.
Step 4: Select the appropriate court for filing the complaint.
Step 5: Pay the prescribed court fee that is required to be paid along with the complaint.
Step 6: Submit the case along with the affidavit & fees in the court.

If you feel uncomfortable doing all this yourself, then you should use Voxya to file a complaint against travel company. We will send Legal Notice and prepare Case for filing in consumer court. We, at Voxya, are generally receiving more than 100 travel consumer complaints every month.

Most Common Issue Reported for Travel Complaints

Money deducted, Ticket not booked

No Refund

Booking canceled

Customer care not responding

Bad hotel booked

Misbehavior by staff

Fraudulent Booking agents

Fake Club membership sold

Train canceled without knowledge

Booking dates changed

Room was not clean

Cab did not arrive on time

Cab driver canceled the trip

Hotel Panchavat Nashik fooling around by claiming gostay hotel Refund not initiated by Goibibo (Goibibo website) ^Open

Dear Mr Manager I'm a very regular traveller and always preferred GOIBIBO. This is first time in years i'm raising the issue and asking for the refund. I trust gostay preferences always. With ref to the above facts I have * issues an...

Aug 27, 2020 by Imran Varshani

Refund (Zoomcar India Private Limited) ^Open

It's been around *** days since I have cancelled the booking and requesting for my refund. But they are NOT giving back my money. My booking ID was JPS*NZMCY....

Aug 25, 2020 by Arun Kumar

Vehicle Not provided at scheduled time and the brand showed its irresponsibility towards customer af (Travel Triangle ) ^Open

we cancelled our trip to nainital because of the series of irresponsible behaviour and issues noted before the start of the trip from Travel Triangle. Mr. Anil of Virat tourism is one who was in touch with me as coordinator for the trip. ...

Aug 25, 2020 by Kaushik

Refund not done (Goibibo) ^Open

Hello I’m contacting you in regards to the booking against PNR no. Bpbc** and This was a round trip ticket with departure from Saskatoon to Delhi on ** april and Delhi to Saskatoon ** may on However, due to covid-** flight cancelled i did n...

Aug 25, 2020 by Rohit chauhan

No refund even after 6 months (Cleartrip) ^Open

I booked * tickets via Cleartrip for a return flight from Dubai to Cochin for me and my wife for the *th of March for **** AED(***** Rs). I booked this in December ****. Then in March, I got a mail from the airlines that my flight has been canc...

Aug 25, 2020 by Bobby George

Refund not done (Clear Trip) ^Open

March **th I cancelled my flight from Bangalore to Visakhapatnam, they haven't refunded the amount yet. Atleast ** followups still no luck on this. My trip id - ************. Every time they say it will be resolved in the next ** hours. I am fe...

Aug 25, 2020 by Bhakta Panda

REFUND NOT GIVEN (cleartrip com) ^Open

My trip ID is ************. I have received a mail from cleartrip, saying that the said flight has got cancelled and for getting a refund I suppose to cancel a flight from the application by selecting "cancellation from airline" option. So, I d...

Aug 25, 2020 by MUHAMMED AZIF

Refund not initiated by IXIGO (Ixigo) ^Open

Hi, I have booked two tickets from DEL to VNS and VNS to DEL (which cost me around ****) from IXIGO Mobile Application and I have cancelled both the tickets as both the flights were rescheduled by the Vistara airline and because of which I was ...

Aug 24, 2020 by Yash Rathore

Refund (Easymytrip Com) ^Open

I am Salman Hussain I was a flight booking of indigo through easymytrip of *nd april the ticket has been cancelled but I have not received the refund amount the indigo has been inform to me the amount has been refunded but easymytrip have not r...

Aug 24, 2020 by Salman Hussain

Refund for flight which did not operate (Make my trip) ^Open

I WANT TO FILE A COMPLAINT AGAINST MAKEMYTRIP FOR NOT REFUNDING MY MONEY FOR GO AIR FLIGHT ON JUNE * ****. THE CUSTOMER SERVICE FOR MAKEMYTRIP IS NON EXISTENT AND THEY ARE GUILTY OF HOARDING CUSTOMER MONEY AND ILLEGALLY MAKING PROFITS ON IT. I...

Aug 24, 2020 by HARSHAVARDHAN DESHMUKH

Flight ticket booking cancelked but not refund (Make My Trip Gurugram Haryana India) ^Open

My INDIGO Flight has been booked on *rd July **** form Make My Trip from Bangalore to Patna. Me and my friend both booked the flight on same date and due to rescheduled of the flight i cold not travel on that date and my friend traveled on tha...

Aug 23, 2020 by Aditya Shankar

Ticket cancelled due to Corona but no refund till now (Cleartrip Com) ^Open

two diffrent trip were booked *) was multi city trip for * total trips and another trip return journey. all bookings were cancelled due to Corona Pandemic. i have paid total ***** out of which **** is refunded and remaining amount is still not...

Aug 23, 2020 by Anand Kumar

Refund not processed (Make my trip) ^Open

I have a flight booking with Make my Trip under Booking ID:NF************** (JTKLS*), on **th June . Since the whole route(Chandigarh to Pune ) was not operational ,got rescheduled to **nd June by Vistara. Since there was no confirmation of ...

Aug 23, 2020 by SS

Money Not refunding by Travel Agent (Via.com) ^Open

Booked Tickets by Via.Com and Indigo Airlines has cancelled the Ticket due to Covid and fully refunded the amount to Via.com, after several reminders to Via.com till date money has not been refunded neither they are giving any response....

Aug 22, 2020 by VIKASH AGARWAL

Goibibo didn t refund (Goibibo) ^Open

I booked flight on *th Dec **** from allahabad to Bangalore ..The flight got cancelled on **th May due to covid ** pandemic and indigo refunded me the amount on *th July and sent the refunded amount to GOIBIBO ...Since then I have tried calling...

Aug 22, 2020 by Amit Srivastava

Refund for Cancellation of flight by airline (Goibibo) ^Open

My flight was cancelled by airline due to COVID** and credited a credit shell instead of full refund for future booking I later tried to use the credit shell to book my flight but didn't find any credit shell as talked with airlines. This...

Aug 22, 2020 by Neeraj Pandey

Complaint against Travel Agent Shoes on Loose for the honeymoon trip booked for Maldives (Shoes On Loose Private Limited) ^Open

I would like to complaint about the travel agent “Shoes on Loose” for my honeymoon trip booked for Maldives. I had booked my trip from *nd – *th April’**** in the month of January’**** by making a full payment of *,**,***/-. Due to...

Aug 21, 2020 by SHREY KUMAR SINGH

FULL REFUND ON AIR TICKET CANCELLATION NOT RECEIVED (Make My Trip) ^Open

Dear Madam/Sir After cancellation my air ticket PNR-RIQMRE dated **.**.** from Chennai to Kolkata due to non-operational of Kolkata airport and corona issue they are not refunding me the full amount and not responding my mail. The ticket has b...

Aug 21, 2020 by AYON TALUKDAR

Cleartrip is not giving refund (Cleartrip) ^Open

For return indigo flight(pnr:-UHNDYS & GQ*W*B) I got mail from cleartrip about * month ago that refund will be intiated in** days but still didnt get any refund So i recently contact indigo airlines and they said refund is already initiated...

Aug 21, 2020 by Harsh d savaliya

Airticket refund not initiated (Goibibio) ^Open

international flight booking from hyderabad to washington DC and back to hyderabad was booked through goibibo on **th march, **** on qatar airlines. the flight was cancelled due to covid-** but refund was processed till date. number of times s...

Aug 21, 2020 by udaya bhaskar

Fraud Drivers Led Us To miss our bus tickets of 4 passengers to Bangalore (Redbus.in) ^Closed

I had a bus booking from thrissur to bangalore on **/**/**** ..I was supposed to board the bus at *:** P.M.. i reached the boarding point at *:** P.M (** mins prior mentioned )..i didn't receive any wake up call from redbus team as they have in...

Mar 02, 2020 by K. Nikhil

Refund Not been Given (Myntra.com ) ^Closed

Hi I Have two purchased with Myntra.com on **.**.**** once i received i Phone them Product is Not Upto Standard please take them Back And Credit same in My Myntra Credit Later two Days i Have received refund of One Shirt never Refund of Iind ...

Feb 28, 2020 by Abid Zargar

OLA CHARGED WITHOUT GIVING SERVICE (Ola Cab Visakhapatnam) ^Closed

N **TH FEB **** I HIRED OLA CAB ON RENTAL FOR * HRS AND WAS ON MY WAY TO AIRPORT TO PICKUP MY BOSS FROM AIRPORT WHICH IS HARDLY ** -** KM FROM DABA GARDEN (VISHAKAPATNAM ).I WAS ABOUT TO REACH AIRPORT WHICH WAS HARDLY *.* KM,AS MY DRIVER (RONGA...

Feb 28, 2020 by SHAHNAWAZ ALAM

So this company was told about Coronavirus and it’s impact so like a normal person I was wanting to cancel the trip and written it to the Travel Agency in return they claimed Hotel is not refunding where in the hotel said we have no such book...

Feb 27, 2020 by Anjali Tewari

Refund of the security deposit (Colive Oasis) ^Closed

I was a customer of colive Oasis. Me and my brother stayed at room number ***. We bought a puppy to our room as there was no rules for pets written in the colive hand book ( I have the evidence for that), as we bought a puppy to our room the ...

Feb 19, 2020 by Anjana B Nair

Refund required for booked travel plan (Travel Triangle ) ^Closed

Travel plan to phuket,bangkok was booked from *th Feb ****.full amount was paid to the travel agency, we planned for a hassle free trip but it turned out to be the worst nightmare. After booking the travel plan we asked travel agency that I had...

Feb 18, 2020 by Imam Bahadur

Customer care denied to reschedule or cancel the ticket (Red Bus) ^Closed

I have requested red bus customer care to reschedule my ticket from **th feb **** to **th feb **** due to personal issues but they denied it stating it cannot be rescheduled or cancelled as it has already been rescheduled from **th to **th. Thi...

Feb 11, 2020 by Srija reddy

Dissatisfied with membership Feel cheated (Club Mahindra Holidays) ^Closed

Club Mahindra -white studio- membership. The company takes a lot of money and the resorts / properties are off located from main tourist destination. They are not listening to the customer grievances and only bother for money. The service is be...

Feb 09, 2020 by Ranjeet kumar

Refund my amount of rs (Yatra) ^Closed

Hi, I never thought that Yatra would cheat on me. I have purchased Holiday package for Europe (Glimpses Of Europe) from Yatra at the cost of Rs *****/- for the month of May. I was in co-ordination with the executive Kanchan Verma from Yatra...

Feb 08, 2020 by Ronson

Fake promises Colive (Colive) ^Closed

They promise to give a smart stay . But they forget the promises after getting the money. No Wifi, No cleaning, no clean water to drink , no hygiene ...

Feb 07, 2020 by Kush pawar

Refund for Hotel Cancellation (Makemytrip) ^Closed

I did a last minute planning to travel to Pondicherry with my family and wanted to book beach resort. I searched beach resort on makemytrip website and did the booking one night before travel. I booked the resort for two nights stay, two rooms ...

Feb 06, 2020 by Gaurav Saxena

MakeMyTrip cheats with this hellhole (Make My Trip) ^Closed

I booked an hotel in Ongole as part of travel with my team from the **th January last week. My stay at Regalia, Tirupati was pleasant. I reached Soumya International at Ongole the next day i.e **th midnight. Me and my team were greeted to rats ...

Feb 05, 2020 by Ashok Maridas

Refund not received (Oyo) ^Closed

I made a online booking through Oyo portal & when i went for Check In they denied that they are not registered with Oyo from past * months , after that i had word with Oyo customer Executive he had shifted to another Hotel, again i faced the sa...

Jan 31, 2020 by JAINAM SHAH

Deficiency in service (Ola Cab ) ^Closed

Respected Authority, I am a resident of Sonipat, Haryana. I am using you cab services from last * months, and I am highly disappointed. Your cab drivers deny to provide me with local rides. I am a girl, and I thought that your cabs are the mo...

Jan 31, 2020 by Vaishali

Service deficiency issue (Yatra) ^Closed

I booked a package from Yatra # YA:******** and enclosed is the itinerary - according to this, we had a pick-up on a pvt basis from Phuket Airport to Krabi. My flight (G* **) ETA was **:** but it got delayed on **th Jan and we arrived in Phuket...

Jan 31, 2020 by Neha Khattar

Payment done but booking not completed (Goibibio) ^Closed

I have booked tickets from Kolkata to Delhi. My payment was done , but booking was not done. I waited for ** hours, the status was same. I tried to contact through call center for whole day , but they have restricted all the ways in which we ca...

Jan 30, 2020 by NISHANT SINGH

Full refund denied (Make My Trip) ^Closed

My Booking ID NF**************. Flight booked in Air India through MMT on **th feb,****, got cancelled by the airline itself due to operational reason. As per Air India I am eligible for full refund and they also transferred the full amount ...

Jan 29, 2020 by Souradeep Dey

Money deducted without ticket being booked (Make My Trip) ^Closed

made a payment of Rs ****.** from my BHIM app via upi at **:**:** for booking a train ticket, but to my surprise, no booking process was done even after the transaction was successfully made. I am really disappointed with this as I've been usi...

Jan 29, 2020 by Christy Isadore

Ticket not confirmed but amount deducted (Redbus) ^Closed

I booked a bus ticket through redbus to travel from Osmanabad to Aurangabad in MSRTC bus on Jan ** ****. I paid through Phonepe and the amount was deducted from my bank account yet my ticket not get confirmed. I contacted to phonepe they said ...

Jan 29, 2020 by Prayojita Namdas

User ID disabled (IRCTC) ^Closed

My user Id pra********** for IRCTC login is disabled since January *, ****. On January * at their request for address, I sent address and Aadhaar copy as address proof. Till date despite several reminders to their email and telephonic request t...

Jan 29, 2020 by Pravin Rajan