Why Oyo rooms is a scam?
I have been hearing from several people particularly on the social media comments page that Oyo rooms is a scam. I never believed in it. I thought it as an Indian growth story in which Mr. Ritesh Agarwal has played a dominant role to create a name in the hospitality sector. I was really impressed by its expansion plans and future outlook until I booked a room for myself. In this blog post, I will bring out how Oyo is cheating customers through its controlled chain of hotels proving that it is indeed a great scam.
My wife booked a ticket a month before for two nights in Oyo 2925 Hotel Tri Inn, Ranchi. She was so delighted that after applying promo coupons, the premium room for two guests was offered for price as low as Rs. 1191 including breakfast for the first day. The second day was offered with a 30% larger room at an even better price of Rs. 1094. She paid the amount completely online fearing that the prices might increase in future.
We reached the hotel at 11 am on 26 April 2019, in anticipation that an early check might be provided (the standard check-in time is 12 noon). I showed my booking details to the manager at the reception which did not please him. He said to me in a very harsh tone that it was not at all possible for him to offer me room at such low price and so I should call Oyo for further information. I said to him that he should call Oyo instead since I have already paid for it and it is now for them to sort out. He yelled at me saying me to call. I called several times on the Oyo helpline number mentioned on the mobile application but the call could never get connected to the service person. We were never asked by the manager to take a seat even so that we could feel at ease in calling the customer service. Finally, we both sat on the lobby at the reception lounge and posted several tweets with pictures of reception to Oyo customer service and their founder so that they could pay some attention to our problem. After 15 minutes, I got a call from Mr. Ashish at Oyo escalations team that I don’t need to worry. The things would be sorted out soon. He said me to hand over the phone to the manager. The manager was taking some prints and he said me to wait while he is free to take call. The other guy Mr. Ashish was continuously waiting on the phone line. I could easily experience the anger on the manager’s face since he expected me to get out. At last he talked to Mr. Ashish but was not convinced. I could hear that Mr. Ashish was telling him to offer the room but he was continuously arguing that it was not possible for him to offer the room since the base price of room was Rs. 1600. The manager handed over the phone to me and said that he could not offer me the room at the price booked by me but could offer it if I pay an additional amount of Rs. 400.
I again got a call from Mr. Ashish that he could not convince the manager and that I should pay the additional amount which would be offered to me back from Oyo on Paytm wallet. Meanwhile, my wife was feeling extremely low to experience this dilemma with luggage in hand so I agreed to pay the additional amount. The manager calculated the additional amount which came to Rs. 409 and I paid the same through debit card. He offered me a key for room no. 405. I said to him that I have another booking for a bigger room for the next day so he should arrange for that as well. He became extremely wild at this and shouted at me that he could not offer me any room now since he was not knowing that I had another booking. He told that he is refunding me the money which I paid a minute ago. Though I was losing control over me but still I requested him to offer me the room for that day at least. He then banged the keys to me. There was no one to accompany us or carry our luggage to the room. I and my wife felt so humiliated at this. We were staring at each other on the lift thinking about our decision at book rooms from Oyo. We never know that there was more problems in store.
The room offered to us was having a thick stink of cigarette with soiled mirrors. The air conditioner was without temperature control with nonfunctional televison. It looked as if the room was unused for a long time and was offered only to guests like us. On glancing through the Oyo app, it mentioned that room no. 406 was offered to us while we were offered room no. 405 in reality.
Bang. Immediately, I received a call from the same manager on the intercom that why did I share this incident on social media with a picture of the reception. I told him that the call center was not reachable and his picture was not there on my post. He threatened me directly that the consequences would be quite bitter if his face was visible in my posts. In hindi, he shouted “Bahut bura kar denge agar usme mera photo hua to”
My wife felt so scared and unsafe at this incident that she immediately shared this incident on email to Mr. Ashish who had mailed to her to ask for Paytm number to credit the excess amount paid. I again received a call from Mr. Ashish that he is so sorry for the manager’s behavior and would take most severe action possible after I checkout from the property since the manager could again misbehave with me. I told him that the manager should atleast apologize for his behavior for which he said that he will do everything which could set this right. When asked on the action possible, he said that the property would be shown sold out from Oyo for at least 7 days which would teach them a lesson to respect customers booked through their platform. He told me that another hotel in vicinity would be offered to me tomorrow for which I have to pay Rs. 1000 while the second day charges would be refunded to me.
We were so depressed and disappointed with this incident that we feared to get out since we would again have to face the manager. Somehow, we got out in the evening and were happy to see another manager on duty. The next day we never received any calls for breakfast which was there on our itinerary. We left the property at 11 am to again see the same manager on the reception. He took the keys from my hand and arrogantly said “ho gya”. I was such a fool to expect an apology from him while nothing changed at all.
Lessons learnt:
1. Don’t fall into low prices offered on Oyo site and app after using promotional codes.
2. Oyo doesn’t own the property completely and so no liabilities could be fixed on any hotel by them.
3. On denial of check in, the terms and conditions of Oyo mention that they would offer another hotel in the city. As such, nothing is guaranteed. While other hotels offer free trip facility for reaching another hotel of a higher value, here you could end up getting a very low grade hotel at your own expense.
4. In the hospitality industry, you deserve high standards with customer satisfaction. Not to mention, the behavior of the manager is a benchmark for others to follow. Here, the manager behaves as if you are bonded labour with him.
5. There is something called welcome drinks while you arrive at the hotel with a person to carry your luggage to the room. Here, you can consider yourself lucky if you get the keys to your right room. We were offered a different room while another room was mentioned on the Oyo mobile app.
6. The managers working in Oyo’s so called property have minimum levels of decency. While other hotels strive to set apart in quality, Oyo’s manager behave much like local goons.
7. I was happy to see that many of these hotels don’t accept international guests. I think it is a right step not to ashame the name of the country on the whole.
To conclude:
We both felt so sad and broken at our decision to book room with Oyo. I have posted this story to inform others not to fall in Oyo’s trap and make better choice with other online booking sites operational in the country.
Note:
Just after checkout, I was eager to see whether Oyo really took the action promised that the property will be marked sold out for the next 7 days. To my surprise, nothing changed and the rooms were still available around the same price for all the dates. I can share the audio records of my conversations with Mr. Ashish for your reference.
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