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

Domestic Flight Refund (Ibibo Group Private Limited) ^Open

I have booked the flight ticket for **th Mar from Amritsar to Bangalore but it was canceled by airline because of janta curfew and same time the initiate the refund and transfer to Goibibo, but still i have not received the refund, i have rece...

May 01, 2020 by Yogesh Malhotra

Not processing refund (Happy Easy Go) ^Open

Hi, This is to complain against the fraudulent act of Happyeasygo wherein they are not refunding the ticket cancellation amount since the last * months even after multiple follow ups on emails. The ticket was cancelled online on *th March ****,...

May 01, 2020 by Karan Vora

Train ticket refund (Make My Trip) ^Open

The train ticket refund amount is not credited in my account.due to cancellation of all trains due to covid....

May 01, 2020 by Aishwarya keerty

Refund not processed (Tripfactory) ^Open

Booked a package from TripFactory (Travel during Feb ****). In the entire duration of the tour, there were multiple bookings cancelled at the last moment which left a very bad taste in our holiday. There were * such occasions of refund which wa...

Apr 30, 2020 by Deba Prasanna Das

TDR refund from IRCTC against train diversion (IRCTC) ^Open

IRCTC ticket booked on line for journey on **th Feb **** from Anantpur to Bengaluru. SWR diverted the train ***** on **th feb. TDR ************ was filed on **th Feb ****. many reminders have been sent to IRCTC. They attribute non payment due...

Apr 27, 2020 by A V Prasanna

Refund not yet credited (Goibibo India Private Limited) ^Open

My pnr details: (*)********** (*)********** Both tickets are cancelled by irctc themselves duento corona lock down.. irctc already refunded both tickets by April **th itself..but goibibo not yet credited my money....

Apr 26, 2020 by Maharajan

Refund not provided by the travel agency (A M SAFARI CORBETT NATIONAL PARK) ^Open

I have booked *days and *night tour package which includes * safari jeep and * room for one night and paying Rs - ****/- in advance and rest amount to be paid on arrival for the period **/**/**** to **/**/****. But due to spread of Covid** and...

Apr 25, 2020 by Santosh Kumar GUPTA

Goibibo not refunding although the airlines have confirmed that they have paid them the cancellation (Goibbo) ^Open

Goibibo Booking ID: NSGO****S - I have not received the refund Dear Sir/Madam, I had bought tickets along with cancellation insurance cover on December, and cancelled the travel on March **. Goibibo confirmed the refund amount as attache...

Apr 25, 2020 by Kuntal Bhattacharya

Refund (Goibibo airlines) ^Open

I had booked a flight via Goibibo ,from manila to new Delhi Flight cancelled due to corona outbreak (travel bann in india from PHILIPPINES Malaysia and afganistan order from indian govt dated ** march ****). Total amount was *****(*...

Apr 25, 2020 by Jamaldeen

Refund for flight tickets (Goibibo airlines) ^Open

I have booked a ticket for Mumbai to newdelhi on **.**.**** through goibibo. Ticket was confirmed in vistara airline on **.**.**** and amount for rs ***** is deducted. Soon after deductions a message came from vistara that flight is cancelled...

Apr 23, 2020 by Jeetendra Arya

Refund not processed after so many followups (Cleartrip Flights) ^Open

I have booked a flight with trip ID ************ for my family travelling from Kuwait to India and return . Although the airlines (Indigo) has refunded the amount to cleartrip,they are not transferring the amount in my bank account .Every time...

Apr 22, 2020 by ali danish Raza

Package refund (Makemytrip) ^Open

Hello iam ashish singh from lucknow uttarpradesh. I request you that I had packaged Indonesia Bali from MakeMyTrip on * February ****. Whose booking number NL************* and PNR **********.But all kinds of flights have been canceled due to C...

Apr 20, 2020 by Ashish singh

Sab dekho india tourism big fraud (Sab dekho india) ^Open

I booked for * tours through Sab dekho india.com person name Mukesh Ahire my first tour is scheduled on dt *th may **** return date is **th may **** location Bali ,indonesia total advanced given *****/- tourist company arrange tour from...

Apr 19, 2020 by Umesh Borse

Flight cancelled negligible refund (Goibibo) ^Open

*. Please refer booking ID NDC**PRDT booked through goibibo. *. I have been refunded Rs ***/-for my ticket PNR NNRZWG from Delhi to Nuremberg on ** Mar ** out of Rs ***** paid. *. The reason for cancellation was because of cancellation of ...

Apr 18, 2020 by Aakash Bajaj

Refund amount not recieved (Goibibo) ^Open

I had a flight schedule from Blr-Sxr For **th April **** Booked Via Goibibo.Com Per Pnr #: WPHYXX .I Received Email From Indigo Airlines , saying, your flight schedule Is changed and Offered to Choose other flight Or cancel at No Charges on **t...

Apr 17, 2020 by Irfan Ahmad Patloo

Refund for flight cancelled due to outbreak of corona (Goibibo) ^Open

I have had a ticket from manila to new delhi via bangkok Kolkata on ** /** march Having pnr no JG*FQH from manila to Bangkok... BPEWKE FROM BANGKOK TO KOLKATA TO NEW DELHI as per indian govt the flight bann from philipines (port of ori...

Apr 17, 2020 by Jamaldeen

Security deposit money not refunded (Oyo Life) ^Open

i was staying with oyo life from last six months in the property GRG**** The issue is deduction of rent from security deposit without any reason I have already paid the full rent of April month and I have given the move out request on **.**.*...

Apr 16, 2020 by Avinash Daultani

Didn t Recived Refund (Make My Trip) ^Open

I booked a hotel using mmt on * jan **** due to lockdown i cancelled it on ** march but till today ** apr **** no refund is issued under my favour and when i contacted mmt representatives then the asked for bank statement and said that wait for...

Apr 13, 2020 by Sonu Singh

Airline ticket booked on goibibo where the ticket pnr failed but the amount got deducted from my acc (Goibibo) ^Open

Hi, I had booked for * persons for travelling from Kolkata to Hyderabad on the **th of March ****. I had made the payment and it got debited from my account but the transaction shows payment failed on your side. Amount Rs ****, ref :BIL : GI...

Apr 10, 2020 by Abhishek mitra

INAPPROPRIATE REFUND GIVEN BY MAKE MY TRIP (Make My Trip India Pvt Ltd) ^Open

Dear sir, I had done a round trip Air india Flight booking( Through Make My Trip) from New Delhi to Tel Aviv , israel and Tel Aviv to New Delhi with Booking ID- NN************* for my wife and daughter to visit me in israel I Received a...

Apr 07, 2020 by ARVIND SHARMA