The following ordeal started on 27th July 2019, when we got the shocker of our life! The booking done on #Tripadvisor went kaput. The room that we booked was not the same as the one we got for real. This was cheating 101 by Tripadvisor, add to that it's been more than a week and they still haven't resolved the issue. Forget about the money, the mental stress and trauma that we had to go through can't be fathomed 😡! Here is a detailed chain of events put down by my friend who made the booking for us.
On my recent trip to New Delhi, I planned
to catch up with friends and like earlier years, looked at tripadvisor for
booking options. In the past, I made similar apartment bookings two years in a
row and had a very good experience. This time though, the earlier options were
sold out, and I found a “3-bedroom apartment with kitchen” at the link below:
Since I had been using the application to look at Hotels/Speciality lodging at the time (which does not allow for searching for a single lodging room with above 4 guests), clicking the above link took me directly to the property page without any option to change the number of guests. Screenshot of a similar example is seen below:
On clicking “Book Now”, I again noticed that
there is no way to change the number of guests, but there is a booking message
option to the property host.
So I sent the booking request with the
below message specifying that we need the booking for 6 adults and 2 children,
and next day received a response in the TripAdvisor inbox, confirming the
booking. As such, given the apartment had 3 bedrooms and listed as sleeping 36
(!), I believed our communication was clear on the property, space and guests.
I was charged USD 286.25 for the booking which I paid via PayPal.
The apartment listing had no address on it,
so later I found that the location is Hari Nagar in Delhi, when TripAdvisor and
the host Northern Adventure forwarded the exact address. While I felt the
nightly charge for an apartment in this location was high, I figured this was
fine as long as I can spend a good day with friends and kids.
Then came the date (July 27th),
when we reached the address provided. The local property manager provided, arrived
and took us to the 3rd floor, where we were told the apartment was
being cleaned. Then he said that he expected only four people, and there is no
space for more since this apartment has only 2 bedrooms, and a small living
room. I was confused and called the provided number for Northern Adventure. The
local manager said that he is dealing with this agency the first time, and
showed me messages shared with Northern Adventure where he mentioned that there
are only 2 bedrooms. He had forwarded the below pictures to Northern Adventure,
and then they confirmed this apartment can be reserved.
So clearly the host agency Northern
Adventure felt that the decision to move a customer’s booking from one
apartment to a completely different and smaller one was no big deal, and that
they did not need to inform the customer about it.
Northern Adventure after being told by
local providers that the original listing was no longer available, simply
decided that a smaller apartment would be fine without a need to inform their
guest (me). On the phone call, their contact person Heeramani explained that
they reserved a smaller apartment since the booking was only for four. I sent
her the message centre screenshot, but she claimed not to have seen the message
that she ostensibly replied to. Upon asking her why she took the booking given
the listed property was not available and how a 3 bedroom apartment can be
equated with a 2 bedroom one, she did not have any answers. Instead she offered
to ask the local provider to put in some extra folding beds. I made it clear
that this was not the expectation, so there was no reason for me to make
adjustments after being duped in this manner. The comfort of my friends and our
children was much more important.
The manager said that there is barely any
space to fit in extra beds anyway, but he could try, and then left us to deal
with Northern Adventure on the phone. In the next call, Heeramani said that
they can offer another apartment in Greater Kailash (20kms from Hari Nagar),
which has 3 bedrooms. We would then need to pay another Rupees 5,000 (ca.
USD75). The sense of entitlement and service attitude amazed me. It was already
3pm by then.
Meanwhile, in the apartment we saw the real
on-ground situation was far from the pictures, let alone the original listing.
We took the below pictures showing soiled pillows, bedsheets and a poorly
cleaned kitchen.
Based on this it
made no sense to drive an hour to Greater Kailash with no guarantee that the
other apartment would be of livable quality. We had already wasted over an hour
after arrival with the back and forth phone calls. So we drove to a nearby
hotel (Aerocity, Delhi), and explained to Heeramani on the phone that we simply
cannot afford to be disappointed again, based on what we had already seen of
their behaviour and the very fact that a travel company can have the odacity to
charge nearly $300 per night for a small and poorly maintained 2-bedroom
apartment in Hari Nagar, Delhi with no services attached.
We paid less than
this at a Hyatt owned hotel in Aerocity excluding taxes, and put the ordeal
behind me. During this time, I also noticed there is no easy way to call
TripAdvisor customer service in India, so instead I immediately emailed them
detailing what happened.
Till date this is the only reply I received
to this email:
Eventually 6 days after kicking off a
PayPal dispute on the payment, TripAdvisor Chargeback team offered for only a
20% goodwill refund.
This would mean I lose over USD220 of my
original payment and be completely uncompensated for lost time and stress for
us and especially our young children, who simply could not figure out why there
was an hour of confusion and commotion. As a long time TripAdvisor user, and
having travelled to over 100 cities worldwide (since Google Maps started
tracking), I have never had such an experience and never have had to ask the
booking platform for a refund. In no circumstances I could therefore accept
this refund offer.
For now, the struggle continues.
