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
Complaints
Country club membership fraud (Country Club India) Open
I became country club member by paying *****/- with all false promises. It's going to be * years By this December **** where we are not able to take a single trip using their membership which they said accommodation free and few trips are free ...
Sep 01, 2019 by Karthika Ramu
Hotel booking not done (Hotel golden gate) Open
I had booked a room through Oyo in this hotel and when I went to check-in I was denied. They are saying that the price is high now when they have allowed Oyo to make a booking for them how can they say that the price is low. That is their probl...
Sep 01, 2019 by Abhishek thapa
Oyo rupee debit (OYO Rooms) Open
I have raised a complaint regarding '****' oyo rupee debit on ** AUG and till now no resolution is provided. It has been ** days and till now i have atleast called ** times to customer care. All of them who responded said its due to technical i...
Aug 31, 2019 by Jainu
Booking denied at property for non receipt of information (Goibibo and OYO) Open
Booking denied at the property on arrival at the hotelon **st aug **** even after advance payment made and confirmation received from goibibo. The response/treatrment from both goibibo and oyo were disgusting & frustrating. Being a lady I was m...
Aug 31, 2019 by MONICA BHATTACHARJEE
Ola postpaid bill raised without my opting for such service (Ola Cabs & Ola Money) Open
I have been getting mails asking me to pay post paid bill amount of Rs.***. I have not opted for such a service, neither have I used ola money. Please remove this ola post paid bill against my name....
Aug 31, 2019 by Ramadevi B
Complaint against Goibibo lady agent (Goibibo) Open
This complaint is in against a dumb lady agent. I called on ** Aug ****, regarding a query on how to get the amount of train tickets that I'm going to lose because of flight cancellation. My query was: Initially, My flight was on ** Nov ****,...
Aug 31, 2019 by VARUN GUPTA
Refund not yet received for a cancelled ticket (Goibibo) Open
Hi my name is Tarun Kumar Reddy, I had booked my ticket on **th Feb, **** from London to Hyderabad (Jet airway airlines) in goibibo site. They had only changed flight timings what I was not expected as I booked my ticket for evening time but th...
Aug 31, 2019 by TARUN KUMAR REDDY
Ola wrong localisation system (Ola Cabs) Open
I have been using ola cabs long time. This problems happens every day. The location system of ola cabs is completely useless,even after setting the right location the drivers cannot find the correct place. They keep telling me that they have re...
Aug 31, 2019 by Rudransh Singh
Ordered a Rapido Bike for ride and the driver ran away without returning my money (Rapido Corporate Services Private Limited) Open
I had ordered a Rapido .. there came a bike Glamour and the Captains name was Niren Sharma he came to me with a very annoying attitude and tone and said that he wants cash when we had already paid him Rs.*** in paytm. Then, when I asked him to...
Aug 31, 2019 by Utsav Chatterjee
Unprofessional ola driver and mental harassment (Ola Cabs) Open
We had booked an ola for * hours package. After loading our luggage in the cab and having sat down, the driver started asking questions like how will you pay in cash or ola money, where all are you going, why are you going etc. Then he said i d...
Aug 31, 2019 by Vinod Bakshi
Refund not given after flight cancellation (Happyeasygo) Open
Made flight booking through this online company. The Airline cancelled the flight and refunded the money to this company. It has been a month but this company has not refunded the money to my account. Called their customer support ** times all ...
Aug 31, 2019 by Rikin Patel
Payment made but showing pending (Ola Cabs) Open
My father booked a ola auto from his number **********, on **st June **** and the fare shown to him while booking was Rs. *** payable in cash. After reaching the destination Divisional Railway Hospital at M G Railway Colony in Bangalore, the au...
Aug 30, 2019 by Sudipto Mitra
Absurd charges taken (UBER) Open
I just took a ride from my workplace to the airport and was charged extremely high. If the charges are high due to a reason that is a different case but the thing is I was shown the amount of *** INR but when the trip ended I was charged about ...
Aug 30, 2019 by Apoorv
I couldn't avail journey from Mathura to Jaipur which I booked the travels through paytm (Amar Travels) Open
I booked the Amar travels from Mathura to Jaipur at *:**pm on **nd August through paytm. Since I am first time in Mathura, auto driver dropped me near by the boarding point * hour prior to departure. I was waiting in the bus stop and I tried to...
Aug 30, 2019 by Gleetus thimothy
Driver took a longer route and I was charged extra for it (Ola Cabs) Open
I took cab from kaikhali to esplanade kolkata . The driver took a longer route and it took more time and costed me extra money . I complained to OLA and i got no response from their side....
Aug 30, 2019 by Ankit Mazumdar
OYO Rooms didn't refund my full money (OYO Rooms) Open
I booked hotel through OYO rooms and paid full amount also but hotel management denied my check in due to low tariff issue.I called OYO help desk on same day, oyo help desk asked me to pay Rs.**** to hotel management and assured me to refund fu...
Aug 30, 2019 by Raj Mondal
Refund not done (Redbus) Open
I have bioked a travels from Bangalore to Pune for wguch payment waa detected from my account but ticket was not issued. Later it showed failed transaction. Now after * days also i hav not received refund amount. ...
Aug 30, 2019 by Azra Tahseen
Regarding membership cancellation (Country Vacations (country Club Holidays)) Open
I was misguided by employees of a company Country Vacations with false commitments to take membership which costs *,**,***. Membership was taken on my name Ganesh and my wife Jyothi. The employee name is Santhosh, he gave a false commitment an...
Aug 30, 2019 by Ganesh Keerti
Refund not received (Goibibo) Open
Goibibo is not processing refund while stamped document from the airlines is provided to goibibo. Please help me....
Aug 30, 2019 by ASHWANI KUMAR
Did not get the refund (Goibibo India Private Limited) Open
I have done the booking from goibibo app for *nd April'**. However I haven't received the ticket of the booking till *st April'** and so I had to cancel the booking. It was very harassing as I was waiting for the ticket till the previous day...
Aug 30, 2019 by Rajani Arya
"I was unable to get in touch with anyone in Byjus nor with my counselor regarding my problem for 3 months. But Voxya team helped me solve my issue very soon. Thank you!"
Mamta D
Complaint filed against: Byju's