Top consumer complaints in 2024 - Voxya Consumer Forum Online

Travel Complaints

There are various modes of transportation in India be it through air, sea or land. Indian transportation, due to its immense population, is one of the most widely used in the world.

For traveling within India people generally prefer to rent a car or travel via train or bus as they deem convenient. Ola and Uber are prime examples of this. These startups have skyrocketed and are one of most used traveling apps in the India.

Meanwhile, many people prefer to travel via plane as it saves times. For this they either book the ticket through the website directly or look for agents to do the same.

Apart from big names there are some private travel agencies in Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata etc, which try to lure customers by offering them lucrative discounts. Travel agent frauds are quite prevalent in India. The most common travel agent/agency complaints include refund not provided, hotel denying check-in, fake promises etc.

Travel complaints have a sense of urgency and responsibility attached to them because no one wants to board a late flight or wants to stay in low-quality hotel.

We all want our travels and trips to be smooth right from the beginning. And if something does not go as per our expectations, the mood gets spoiled!

Therefore, it brings a significant responsibility on the shoulders of the travel companies to solve the issues faced by their customers. One should only book their hotels/flights via trustworthy sites to avoid getting duped. However, sometimes even these reputed travel companies commit an error.

In this article, we have covered the common travel complaints that are faced by customers and how you can resolve them.

But first lets check out the famous travel companies in India

Famous Travel Companies in India

1. Make My Trip
Make my Trip is one of the leading online travel companies in India. In 2000 it was founded by Deepak Kalra and had its headquarters in Gurugram, Haryana.

They have more than 14 company-owned travel stores in India and have over 30 franchisee-owned travel stores in India. They also have offices in Dubai, Phuket, Bangkok, New York, Kuala, and Lumpur.

2. Yatra:
Founded by Manish Amin, Sabina Chopra, and Dhruv Shringi in 2006, Yatra.com is the pre-eminent Indian online travel agency. It is based in Gurugram, Haryana. According to the sources in 2012, Yatra became the second-largest online travel service provider company in India.

3. OYO:
Oyo rooms, popularly known as Oyo hotels and rooms and stylized as OYO, is the fastest and largest growing hospitality chain in India. They worked on the franchising and leased system, which fortunately turned out to be the best for the company. Founded by Ritesh Agarwal in 2013, OYO gained much popularity right from the beginning.

4. GOIBIBO:
Subsidiary of Make My Trip Limited, Mauritius Ibibo, is a travel organization in 2006 by Ashish Kashyap. In 2013 Goibibo made it among the top five most trusted e-commerce brands in India.

5. HappyEasyGo:
Happy Easy Go is one of the emerging online travel company founded by Boris Zha in 2017. In 2019 it became the second-largest online travel booking platform in India and had more than 10 million customer bases all over the world. It has its headquarters in Gurugram, Shanghai, Chengdu, Hong Kong, and Singapore. During late 2018 HappyEasyGo established its hotel business.

6. Thomas Cook:
Thomas Cook (India) Ltd has its headquarters in Mumbai and caters to all the travel related requirements from visas to foreign exchange. They established themselves in India in 1881 and expanded its business to all the nearby countries.

7. Clear Trip:
Clear Trip earlier was known as Clear Trip Travel Services Private limited is a universal online travel company established in 2016. It has its headquarters in Dubai and Mumbai. In India, they started with a vision of making travel simple by bridging the gap between the Indian hospitality and travel sector. It was founded as an air and hotel aggregator by Stuart Crighton, Mathew Spacie, and Hrush Bhatt.

8. Travel Guru:
Travel Guru is India’s leading and growing travel website. It offers flights, holiday packages, and hotels at the best prices; they aim to make your trip smooth and convenient.

9. Travel Triangle:
Founded by three IIT graduates Sanchit Garg, Prabhat Gupta, and Sankalp Agarwal. It is India’s first fully stacked Holiday Marketplace that connects verified travel agents and travelers. It was founded in 2011 and competed with companies such as Thrillophilia. It is a platform that is trusted by many.

10. Travelocity India:
It is rated as one of the best online travel portals in the world and perfectly caters to the local needs of the people by launching specialized programs. In India, they cater to both business and leisure requirements.

Types of Travel Complaints

1. Tickets canceled, but money is not refunded:
One of the significant problems that are being faced by customers of major travel companies is that they cancel the tickets, but money is not credited to their bank account. This is the most common issue faced by almost all the consumers in cities like Pune, Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru.

During COVID-19 times, many have reported on the internet that they have booked tickets, and they got canceled due to the pandemic. However, the companies did not refund the amount. Either they are saying that they have refunded the amount, or instead, they are offering a credit voucher.

2. No refund for flights canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic:
Due to the global pandemic, suddenly, flights were canceled. It was reported by customers of many major travel companies that they did not get their refund; however, the airlines did return the full booking amount. Many customers were upset because the travel companies did not inform them about the refund from the airlines.

3. Partial refund for the flights canceled due to COVID-19:
Many customers reported that they did not receive the full amount of flights they booked pre-corona. However, airlines have refunded the entire amount, but travel companies did not credit the whole amount; instead, they deducted a certain amount without giving any valid reason.

4. No refund against booked packages:
Many planned trips in June assuming that pandemic will end, but in the wake of current times, still, the tourism industry is on hold.

As people booked packages for traveling and now are requesting for a refund, but many companies are simply denying it.
However, many customers are disturbed with it because, in these uncertain times, they are struggling so much to get their refund.

5. Unable to connect with customer care service:
Many customers from significant travel companies face this very issue when they contact the customer care, they are not entertained, or their complaints are not correctly handled.

Many faced this particular issue while they were contacting the customer care, and their complaints were not appropriately welcomed or they were not able to connect with them.

6. Fraudulent booking agents:
Many travel companies have their booking agents, but some fraudsters just dive in and cheat people.
Many customers from significant companies, including Make My Trip and Yatra complained that they had been cheated by fraudsters in the name of these companies, and they have demanded a refund from the company.

7. Rescheduling of flights due to COVID-19:
Due to Corona pandemic, many people had to reschedule their flights, but travel companies are not helping them or are not considering their request.

8. Over billing by travel companies:
The most common types of complaints regarding Ola and Uber include over billing issues and not returning the left item in the cab. But you can try contacting the customer care number of Ola which is 098842437 and customer care of Uber which is 1300091272.

How to resolve travel complaints?

1. File support ticket/send an email:
You can always contact travel companies through their official website by going to their contact us section and by sending them an email. Customer service emails of some leading travel companies are:
Yatra- support@yatra.com
Make My Trip- care@makemytrip.com
Happy Easy Go- cs@happyeasygo.com
Clear Trip- customersupport@cleartrip.com
Goibibo- travel@goibibo.com
Travel guru- service@travelguru.com

2. Call Customer support:
One of the perfect ways to directly come in contact with the travel company is by contacting it through phone call for customer support. All these well-known travel companies have a 24*7 working customer care number which helps in resolving complaints as they value customer feedback. The customer care number of some of the leading travel agencies and hospitality companies in India are :

Cox and Kings Customer Care Number - 1800 209 0400
Thomas Cook Customer Care Number - 1800 209 9100
Club Mahindra Holidays Customer Care Number - 044 6695 3435
Expedia Customer Care Number – 800-319-4834
Yatra Customer Care Number - 0124 3040500
Goibibo Customer Care Number - 1800 208 1060
Makemytrip Customer Care Number - 1800 102 8747
Travelguru Customer Care Number - +91 92111 77444
Oyo Customer Care Number - 093139 31393
RedBus Customer Care Number - 1860 121 2102

3. Report to the airlines/hotel directly:
As we have seen above, many customers have reported that the airlines and hotels have issued a refund, but the travel companies have not refunded the money in the bank accounts. It is always better to contact the airlines or hotels directly if the companies don’t issue a refund by time. You can contact the airlines and hotels by calling them on their customer care number or by sending the email.

4. Send Legal Notice:
Consumers can send legal notices to travel company in case it is unable to resolve his complaint. It is one of the efficient ways to handle the issue legally. Check below to know how to send a legal notice to travel company?

Step 1: Firstly, get a legal notice drafted by a lawyer.
Step 2: Check it properly and make sure it is signed by lawyer.
Step 3: Keep a copy of it for future purposes.
Step 4: Send the legal notice to travel company by registered post.
Step 5: Keep the slip or delivery report for evidence.

5. File consumer forum case:
Consumer forum deals with consumer complaints and you should approach consumer forum if you feel that your rights as a consumer have been violated.

If travel company is not responding to your complaints even after sending legal notice by a lawyer then you should file a case against it in a consumer court.

Here is how you can file a case in the consumer court?

Step 1: Intimate the aggrieved party via legal notice.
Step 2: Draft the consumer complaint
Step 3: Attach all the relevant documents and proofs to support your complaint.
Step 4: Select the appropriate court for filing the complaint.
Step 5: Pay the prescribed court fee that is required to be paid along with the complaint.
Step 6: Submit the case along with the affidavit & fees in the court.

If you feel uncomfortable doing all this yourself, then you should use Voxya to file a complaint against travel company. We will send Legal Notice and prepare Case for filing in consumer court. We, at Voxya, are generally receiving more than 100 travel consumer complaints every month.

Most Common Issue Reported for Travel Complaints

Money deducted, Ticket not booked

No Refund

Booking canceled

Customer care not responding

Bad hotel booked

Misbehavior by staff

Fraudulent Booking agents

Fake Club membership sold

Train canceled without knowledge

Booking dates changed

Room was not clean

Cab did not arrive on time

Cab driver canceled the trip

Replacement of External Hard Disk Drive having S N (WD My passport) ^Open

I had mailed it about Hard Disk Drive replacement on **.**.**** but till today there is no reply from Company side. The External Hard Disk is under warranty period. Unable to contact to the customer care number. ...

Oct 05, 2020 by Dharmendra Kumar Behera

BUS BOOKING (UNIVERSAL TRAVELS REDBUS) ^Open

I booked * rd oct **** for * tickets from chennai to tirukadaiyur... But the ticket was booked *th oct ****. I have all screenshots for booking *rd oct.. Redbus is not responding for the issue and the travels also not responding.. Kindly refund...

Oct 05, 2020 by Vijayanandham T

Outdated refund of automatically cancelled train (IRCTC) ^Open

I book a ticket for the train and the train automatically cancelled then it was declared by railway department that refund will be given when the lockdown opens after * months till * months but since it was window ticket we waited for the offic...

Oct 05, 2020 by Shital Ruprao Damle

Refund not received by makemytrip (Makemytrip india Pvt Ltd) ^Open

I booked round trip flights via makemytrip. Due to pandemic i rescheduled the flights through airlines as makemytrip could not be reached for rescheduling via phone. The flights however got cancelled by the airlines and they have refunded the a...

Oct 05, 2020 by Manisha Bhteria

Ticket fraud (Travolook) ^Open

I have booked a flight from jammu to delhi , they send me a mail that booking process has been started, but after a hour i got a message that the flight has been cancelled from the airline, and refund had been initiated but no refund is credi...

Oct 04, 2020 by rohit singh

Refund (Cleartrip) ^Open

My flight cancelled by airlines due to covid** report. I want my refund ...

Oct 04, 2020 by nafees ahmed

Travolook Money deducted but no ticket confirmation yet (travolook in) ^Open

This is the first time i was booking a flight ticket from Travolook and had this horrible experience. The flight ticket from BOM-VNS return and money got deducted at **:**:** IST from my HDFC credit card of Rs ****. ...

Oct 03, 2020 by Alka Katiyar

Ola overcharged me (Ola Cabs Indore) ^Open

Hi team, I took an Ola ride on ** Sep from Devi Ahilya International Airport (Indore) to my home address which is ** kms away. The estimated fare at the time of booking was INR *** (after applying the coupon code). Upon dropping, the invo...

Oct 03, 2020 by RITWIJ JAIN

Refund Not Received from Cleartrip over 4 Months (Cleartrip) ^Open

Had to reschedule my Indigo flight from Kolkata to Pune with PNR #DJ*UUJ, trip id# ************. The reschedule happened on **-May-** and generated refund of Rs.**** and the same is refunded by concerned airline now lying with Cleartrip over * ...

Oct 03, 2020 by Partha Pratim Sinha

Refund pending from Goibibo (Goibibo) ^Open

This is regarding my payment to goibibo regarding seat booking for PNR LPGW*U. The payment was done on the goibibo app for seat booking for *** rs. Seat booking failed but payment was received by Goibibo. Airlines mentioned that they have not r...

Oct 02, 2020 by Pritish Anand

Full refund not provided (Easemytrip) ^Open

I booked round trip air tickets through easemytrip to travel to delhi on March **. My total ticket cost was around Rs **,***/-. PNR UZD*MB. But due to Corona Pandemic I had to cancel the plan. Communicated the same to AirVistara and they were v...

Oct 02, 2020 by Poola Jeelan Basha

Refund not received (Cleartrip) ^Open

I booked and cancelled my stay at Indore Marriott from ** to ** Aug. Haven't received the refund yet. I am getting no response from them at all. Customer care number is switched off. Email they are not responding. In App support center is ...

Oct 01, 2020 by NITESH CHANDRA

Ticket not booked but my money deducted from account (Travolook in) ^Open

Dear sir, Today I booked air ticket from patna to Nagpur, on travolook.in during process my money deducted from my account but ticket no get to me. ...

Oct 01, 2020 by Vikash chandra sinh

Cleartrip Full refund is given for my trip (Cleartrip) ^Open

Hi Sir, I purchased Visakhapatnam → Mangalore round trip (*th Apr to **th Apr) from cleartrip in March. But due to COVID ** lockdown, it got cancelled. Indigo Team confirmed that they refunded the full amount to Cleartrip. I Paid ***,*** ...

Oct 01, 2020 by Satya Gottumukkala

Nonrefunding (IRCTC) ^Open

I had not received paid amount to IRCTC on ticket booking on dated :- **/**/**** I had faced a lot of traveling problem and got harres. I got mentality harries. Kindly solve my query otherwise . I will file an FIR against IRCTC. or complet...

Oct 01, 2020 by rasna devi

Urgent Attention Required Trip ID Cleartrip Fraud (Cleartrip) ^Open

Hi Sir, I purchased New Delhi to Bali round trip (**st July to **th July) from cleartrip in February under their Freedom fare scheme which states that if I cancel my ticket they would refund the full amount within * days. But As you know thi...

Sep 28, 2020 by Sheena Marwaha

Harassing me by not refunding my money (Cleartrip) ^Open

I had booked flight ticket with CLEARTRIP for Spice Jet routing BOM-IXE (Mumbai-Mangalore) for **th June **, But due to Covid ** lockdown it got cancelled automatically. And even PM Narendra Modi have appealed to refund full money during this...

Sep 28, 2020 by Pawan Salian

TOURIST AGENT CHEATED NOT REFUNDING MONEY (Saanvy Tours And Travels Vijaywada) ^Open

I HAVE BOOKED TOUR PACKAGE WITH SAANVY TOURS AND TRAVELS IN LAST OCT ****, (REF NO.***/****/JD), TOUR PACKAGE WAS FROM MUMBAI TO PURI TO VIJAYWADA TO SRISAILAM TO TIRUPATI TO MADURAI TILL COCHIN . THE TOUR PACAKAGE CONSIST OF TRAIN TICKETS OF *...

Sep 28, 2020 by DEEPTI TAMBOLI

MakeMyTrip Not Refunded (Makemytrip) ^Open

This is to inform you that I had cancelled My booking bearing ID No: NF************** & NF************** for those Airlines have already refunded the money to MakeMyTrip but MMT yet not transferred the same amount into my account. Therefore, Y...

Sep 28, 2020 by RAJU SAHA

Refund issue for flight cancellation with IRCTC (IRCTC) ^Open

For the transaction Id **********, there were two PNR's. PNR *: KDW**A --> Spicejet --> SG*** --> Total amount: INR **,*** ----> REFUND YET TO RECEIVE. PNR *: UTM**V --> Airasia --> I*-*** --->Total amount: INR **,*** ---> REFUND RECEIVED....

Sep 28, 2020 by Lakshmi Narayanan

Worst car services (Goibibio) ^Closed

I booked cab services from Goibibo for Jaipur for **th April ****. I booked Cab on **th and they scheduled the cab and mailed me that cab will arrive at your address at **:** am. But no cab came. I called customer care they said that they will ...

Apr 20, 2019 by Kamal chourasia

Refund got declined (Oyo) ^Closed

Booking ID: TURG**** I booked Oyo ***** ( Luxury Home ) for * nights from Wed ** April to Sun ** April and paid online Rs ****. On **th April I reached the location provided by Oyo app. There was no hotel in the particular location. The locals...

Apr 20, 2019 by Zaki Ahmad

Customer harassment done (Make My Trip) ^Closed

We booked * rooms via Make My trip for Regenta resorts in Pushkar wherein we got confirmation of the booking too and after nearly * days we received a call from the resort that the rooms are full and they don't have space for us as by mistake t...

Apr 18, 2019 by Anushruti chatterjee

Bus did not showed as per the boarding time (Red Bus) ^Closed

I booked a bus from Redbus en route from Ahmedabad to Udaipur. The name of the travel was Laxmi travels. The bus was scheduled to come at *:** pm at the boarding point. Redbus notified the information through the message about the bus and the c...

Apr 18, 2019 by Prasun khabya

No response on my flights (Goibibo) ^Closed

Goibibo website is modified suitably to give no response on Jet bookings. I have booked Jet flight from Mumbai to Singapore but all modes of communication from Goibigo website is blocked. Phone lines always state that they have huge traffic hen...

Apr 18, 2019 by Praveen Agarwal

Full refund not received (Cleartrip) ^Closed

I have booked a ticket on **th of March **** from Mumbai to Bangalore for two passengers on Cleartrip for an amount of Rs *****. The trip id is ************. However, the name I entered there was wrong and I immediately called the Cleartrip cus...

Apr 17, 2019 by Jithin Das

No response from customer care (Oyo) ^Closed

I booked Oyo sober dreams Hinjewadi Pune hotel for ***/-. After reaching there I came to know due to the electricity issue they couldn't allocate the room to me. They ask me to place a call to customer care to adjust in the nearby Oyo hotel. A...

Apr 16, 2019 by Sujay Navghare

Refund is not given for cancelled transaction (Goibibo) ^Closed

I booked train tickets from Goibibo which gets cancelled and the money is deducted. They are sending me emails from weeks saying the refund is done but I haven't got single money from them. Also, they haven't provided me with the ARN ref number...

Apr 16, 2019 by Abhinav sharma

Check in baggage allowance (Makemytrip (india) Pvt. Ltd.) ^Closed

A few days ago we inquired on MakeMyTrip app about booking of flight for Sector Jammu Delhi and saw that check-in baggage allowance of ** kgs allowed in Air India flight no AI ****. Accordingly, we booked a ticket under their reference no NF **...

Apr 16, 2019 by Babli razdan

Refund not received (Cleartrip) ^Closed

I have booked a ticket on **th of March **** from Mumbai to Bangalore for two passengers on Cleartrip for an amount of Rs *****. However, the name I entered there was wrong and I immediately called the Cleartrip customer care for support and I ...

Apr 14, 2019 by Jithin Das

Treated badly by the company (Zoom Car) ^Closed

I have booked a car from zoom car on **.**.**** for ** hours and he supposed to deliver it by * am on booked day. But they didn't deliver the car instead of delivery they asked me to pick the car from another location and I went to the location...

Apr 12, 2019 by Prashanth

Rude and threatening attitude of the receptionist (Oyo Hotel) ^Closed

On **th March we had booked at GS Residency in Varanasi. Due to some reason, we cancelled the booking in the hotel itself and wanted to seek assistance from an Oyo advisor but the receptionist misguided us and misbehaved with us by using abusiv...

Apr 12, 2019 by Ayantika Chatterjee

No refund for failed booking (Cleartrip) ^Closed

Cleartrip is not refunding amount for failed booking even though bank and intermediary ccAvenue is stating successful transfer to Cleartrip account. They are cheating customers. Customer service is pathetic and they do not help in case of any f...

Apr 12, 2019 by P KUMAR

Harassed by the company (Make My Trip) ^Closed

I made a booking through MakeMyTrip for two adults and one child to Hotel Malas, Panchgani for one night on *th April ****. On arrival, I was harassed by the front office receptionist by saying that I did not provide the correct age of my child...

Apr 12, 2019 by Tina mitra

Refund not given (Happy Easy Go) ^Closed

My PNR number was RNRGNR with a two-way journey. I wanted to cancel my return ticket three days prior to the journey. The app of happy go easy wasn't helpful so I went ahead and cancelled the tickets from the Indigo website receiving a refund o...

Apr 11, 2019 by Aakriti upadhyay

Refund not made for the cancelled flight ticket (Make My Trip) ^Closed

I had cancelled round trip booking flight Delhi-Sydney on **.**.**** and till date, no refund has been done. Their support customer care and chat are absolutely pathetic. No one replies. Booking ID is NN*************. Kindly resolve this issue....

Apr 11, 2019 by SHAILENDRA KUMAR

Forceful usage of cash over original payment (Make My Trip) ^Closed

The hotel normal cancellation policy allows free cancellation till ** hours before check-in time and I had double black MMT membership. I specifically called the MMT support to request that they use the normal hotel cancellation policy for two ...

Apr 10, 2019 by Manav Prakash

Non reservation candidates in reservation compartment (IRCTC) ^Closed

I have two reservation tickets from SC to BVRM town station. Today I was about to board the train but people don't allow me to get in. The person without reservation tickets entered reservation compartments and does not have the place for peopl...

Apr 09, 2019 by Satyaveni

Amount wrongly debited (Make My Trip) ^Closed

On Dt. **/**/**, I tried to book an Air ticket from Mumbai to Cochin through Make my Trip option. Make My Trip Complaint/Reference ID - ******-******. At the time of booking, amount of Rs.*,***/- got debited from my HDFC Bank Credit Card accoun...

Feb 26, 2019 by RAJESH LAXMAN SHETTY

Bus pick up location changed without information. Bus missed. (Make My Trip) ^Closed

I booked a bus ticket from kolkata to chandikhol for **nd October. The pick up or boarding point of bus changed without any information from MakeMyTrip or from operator. Tried calling operator contact number. But no response received from opera...

Oct 23, 2018 by Dipto Ghosh