“OYO can also make you sleep on the platform,” wrote an Instagram user while sharing a video from a railway station after being forced to vacate their hotel room just an hour after check-in, despite having a confirmed booking online. The hotel manager, upon the owner’s instruction, asked the customer to either pay extra for the room or vacate it.
When they reached out to customer care, they were relocated to another hotel, only to find no one at the reception. Repeated attempts to get proper accommodation led to more location changes, but nothing worked out, ultimately leaving them with no choice but to spend the night on the railway station platform.
“Today I booked a room at a room at OYO to stay a night because I had a train in the morning and my home was quite far in the city. But OYO being OYO, the hotel manager gave me check-in after verifying the online booking but after an hour, he knocked on my door and said that the owner called and the room couldn’t be given at this low price. The price listed on the online platform is wrong and you have to pay extra,” said the Instagram user who uses the handle “loverseraaa”.
They added, “I called customer care to escalate, and they shifted me to another hotel. But unfortunately, when I reached the other hotel, there was no one at reception and the place was very shady.”
“I called customer care again he said the hotel owner was not picking up the call and then asked me to relocate again to a different hotel which was 7km away from my location,” the Instagram user further explained.
With no resolution in sight, the customer requested a refund but was met with another setback: “Nothing worked I requested to shift somewhere near the railway station, but it seemed like this was not possible for them. I requested for refund and I got a response saying you were from the OTA platform and you have to call them for a refund. Since there was no option left and I was late enough to check in any new hotel I decided to stay at the station. And here I am sleeping on the platform.”
The ordeal, since being shared has clocked over 17.2 million views and still counting. While many shared similar experiences, others advised booking hotels other than OYO. Some even went as far as calling OYO a “scam”.
“Still people are using OYO? It’s better to move to other platforms which provide better customer care and list only genuine hotels,” said one Instagram user.
Another joined, “So happy that someone posted this ruckus done by OYO. We too faced a similar situation when booked OYO Hotel for the family. The prices were low on the website and we paid the entire amount. However, when we reached the property they said your payment is due for 16k. We were asked to pay more and take a room with a window cooler or go somewhere else. Around 11.30 at night we were on the road and booked another hotel. Called customer care and they did a partial refund but the properties OYO have are bad, stinks and very unsafe for the family. We did not know that back then. Deepest hate for OYO and his owner.”
“OYO is a scam. I have experienced the same. Make My Trip is the best platform to book however they’ll charge you a little bit more than their competitors but the facilities and support system is top-notch,” expressed a third.
