MakeMyTrip & Oyo to Pay Rs 42000 For Cancelling Hotel Room
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission ordered MakeMyTrip, OYO, and The Essence Retreat hotel in Goa to pay ?42,000 as compensation for cancelling his hotel booking at the last minute.
District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission is where consumers can complain about goods and services.
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission-I of Chandigarh has ordered MakeMyTrip, OYO, and The Essence Retreat hotel in Goa to pay ?42,000 as compensation to Vineet Marwaha for canceling his hotel booking at the last minute. Vineet Marwaha is a Chandigarh resident. In October 2021, he had booked the Essence Retreat hotel in Goa for a five days vacation in December 2021 with his wife & daughter through Goibibo, a subsidiary of MakeMyTrip. Vineet was notified just three days before his check-in date that his booking was canceled because the room was unavailable due to the hotel being “un-operational.” An amount of ?10, 500 was refunded. But, while checking for other hotels on the same platform, Vineet found out that the same hotel was available for the same dates but for the raised price of ?27,000.
That's when he approached the Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission and filed a complaint. After hearing the parties, the Commission said “it is evident that due to heavy rush at the hotel, the price of the room was being increased every day as there were a number of customers in line to get the same booked room even at a higher price.” It also mentioned that the sole motive of the guilty parties was to reap maximum profits and that their actions were meant to harass Vineet & his family at the last moment when they were all set to travel for their vacation. The Commission has ordered MakeMyTrip, OYO, and The Essence Retreat hotel to pay Vineet ?35,000 as compensation, & ?7,000 as litigation costs.
In response to the Commission’s decision, MakeMyTrip said that it was merely an intermediary and a facilitator between the complainant, the hotel and the hospitality service provider Oyo. A similar statement was also issued by Oyo which said that Oyo’s role was only limited to arranging the booking through its platform and that the rest of the operational liability was on the owner of the hotel.
