Worst Experience With OYO Rooms at Katra

I have been booking with Oyo Rooms ever since it came to existence. Never been disappointed up until my last trip to Vaishno Devi, Katra. It was the worst experience of my life for any hotel bookings I have made across all the major online hotel room booking apps or websites. It was so bad that I am tempted to share this experience with people so they can avoid OYO Rooms in Katra, Jammu & Kashmir.

First of all, the following is the screenshot of my recent bookings with Oyo Rooms:

My Oyo Room Bookings

As you can see from the screenshot, the booking at the top stands cancelled, and that is not the only thing. That is where the whole trouble lies.

Here's how OYO Rooms Ruined My Trip

Early morning, on the 4th of October 2019, I booked a hotel room for myself at Katra while I was still in Amritsar. Booked a room in Hotel Anurag which is just 0.5 km away from the main bazaar. I got the confirmation email, everything looked good, see the following booking details:

Booking Details

After booking the room, I packed my bag and started my 7-8 hours of journey to Katra from Amritsar. Reached Katra at about 3:30 pm, went straight to Hotel Anurag. At the reception, another Oyo Rooms customer was already yelling at Oyo customer support and I didn't care until a few minutes passed. I show my booking details to the hotel receptionist. Without even looking at the details, the receptionist says, we do not have a tie-up with OYO Rooms. This kind of shook me and that time, I understood why that OYO customer standing next to me was yelling at OYO Rooms. 

I was not accompanying anyone at the time, otherwise, I usually have my family with me while I travel around. But, that other OYO customer was with his family, I could see elderly women sitting in the lobby. Now imagine how problematic it would have been for him. 

Anyways, moving on, I asked the hotel receptionist to contact OYO to which he said, sorry sir, we ended our tie-up with OYO 6 months back. This was again a big problem as my mobile number associated with OYO rooms won't work in Jammu & Kashmir. 

I requested the hotel receptionist to let me use their Wifi so I can raise a complaint, reluctantly, he gave me the password and I thank him for that. So I opened my OYO rooms app and logged my complaint. No one replies! 

Carry a post-paid mobile number in Jammu & Kashmir

I already knew that my prepaid numbers won't work in Katra so I had carried my brother's post-paid mobile number. After getting no response from OYO rooms over the app. I decided to make a call to Oyo customer support. A lady answers the call, I narrate the whole scenario, she goes sorry sir, sorry sir. I asked her to note the number I was calling from since my registered number wasn't working. At first, she offers me to cancel the booking and initiate a full refund. I gently declined that as I was so exhausted after long travel. 

So, the customer support executive asks me to stay on hold so she could escalate my call to their senior support executive. 5 minutes passed, no one answers, after 8 minutes on hold, the call disconnects automatically.

Nobody cares to call back, this was really very bad, they didn't care about my trouble. After putting me on hold for such a long time, they simply disconnected, leaving me stranded as if I had committed a crime of some sort. Anyways, I called again, explained the whole scenario, again they put me on hold and didn't come back.

I couldn't take that anymore, angrily I called back the Oyo customer support again and threatened to sue them by saying I have all the call records of the harassment I endured. This kind of worked and finally someone from their senior team looked at my concern. They offered to shift my hotel booking to a new hotel nearby(Hotel Meridian), I took that offer, see the booking details:

Shifted booking to this hotel

So I walk about 500 meters to reach this new property. I showed my booking details to the receptionist and...

Worst OYO Rooms Experience at Katra

And, the problem continues, this receptionist at Hotel Meridian says we did not get any confirmation message from OYO and we can not let you check-in. Wow, this was like adding salt to wounds. Already more than 2 hours had passed since my arrival at Katra and I was still going from one hotel to the other even after making the hotel room bookings in well advance.

So I was denied booking again, and the receptionist was such an unempathetic person that even after knowing what I was going through, he didn't care about one bit. His tone was as if I am asking for something that I don't deserve or booked for. I request the receptionist to call OYO and ask them, he clearly says no in a bad tone. This made me so furious that I yelled at him and taught him some etiquette. And all of a sudden his expressions change, and he goes polite. Anyways, I was not allowed to stay in that hotel.

I had no option but to call OYO once again, again after spending some good 15-20 minutes over the phone with their senior executive. All I get is, sorry sir, we can not find a hotel room for you in Katra, and offered a full refund. With absolutely zero strength left in my body, I agreed. They initiated the refund which still hasn't reached my bank BTW. 

I disconnected the phone and started looking for the other available rooms. I had to pay twice the amount to get a hotel room in desperation. So this is how OYO rooms ruined my day in Katra.

Cancellation and refund

Don't use Oyo rooms for hotel booking at Katra, J&K

After going through such a hassle, I request all those who want to make hotel booking at Katra, avoid OYO Rooms. They are really not credible for hotel room booking in the entire UT of Jammu and Kashmir. 

If anyone from OYO rooms is reading this post I have only one thing to say to you. Consider looking at your tie-ups with hotels at Katra. Don't harras people who come to pay homage at Vaishno Mata Mandir.

Update:  Oyorooms refunded the amount within 14 days as promised. The whole issue was due to internet ban in the region. Just wanted to inform you all that, it is no longer a problem now.

The government has lifted the ban now, confirmation messages of bookings are now going fine as of January 20th, 2020.

Therefore, you may go ahead and start booking with OYO Rooms again J&K.

Cheers!