HYDERABAD

A district consumer commission directed travel aggregator Make My Trip to refund ₹13,257 which a customer had paid to book a hotel in Simla, apart from ₹1.5 lakh to 15 persons as punitive damages for mental agony. The hotel that the complainant had booked through the portal failed to respond to their calls, leaving them stranded in the cold in Simla.

President M Ramgopal Reddy, and members D. Sreedevi and J. Shyamala of the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission – III, Hyderabad, were dealing with a complaint filed by Srinivas Yalamanchi, a resident of KPHB Colony here.

The complaint had booked the hotel through the portal on September 22, 2019, for 15 people at an OYO-listed hotel and paid ₹13,257 after which he received a confirmation. However, when they reached there, they found the location of hotel provided was incorrect and the hotel did not answer calls. As a result, they were stranded. The complainant then called Make My Trip’s customer care number and informed them of what had happened. A representative apologised, offered to return ₹13,257 and pay compensation of ₹7,500 per person.

For their part, the opposite parties stated that OYO is one of many service providers listed with them. They stated that an apology was issued, despite no fault of theirs and that a refund and compensation followed.

Taking all evidence placed on record, the Commission stated that the e-mails from the company were not relied upon and are not valid payment receipts. The Commission stated that the “opposite party absolutely failed to provide services to the complainant along with other 14 members” and that they “were faced with a miserable situation” that they were “standing on road overnight with 2 children”.

Apart from directing the company to refund ₹13,257, and pay ₹10,000 as compensation to each person, costs of ₹10,000 were also imposed.