Complaint Details

Status	:	Closed
Complaint No	:	0014497/2014
Category	:	Service Provider
Date	:	22-01-2014
Subject Line	:	refund for cancellation of hotel booking
Complainant	:	Abhishek Kumar
Address	:	Flat 301, Malabar Jyoti Apartment, 4th Street, Anantpur
Complainee	:	stayzilla.com
Address	:	No:2, 4th floor, Rams Swathi Towers, Durgabai Deshmukh Road, R. A. Puram,

Complaint Details
1) I booked a room in hotel Amigo Plaza, Goa through Stayzilla.com on 23rd Nov, 2013 for 23rd - 26th dec, 2013 by paying INR 7176. The order id provided by Stayzilla was 64048-7176-1385233127.

2) I wrote to info@stayzilla.com on 18th Dec, 2013 stating that I need to cancel the booking so tell me the cancellation charges. But, received no response.

3) I again wrote to jennifer@stayzilla.com and orders@stayzilla.com on 19th Dec,2013 for cancellation charges. They, too, never replied.

4) On 20th Dec, 2013, in the forenoon, I called their customer support number and was told that they would get back to me with the cancellation charges by that afternoon. Again, this never happened.
5) On 20th Dec, 2013, in the evening, I once again called them to get information on cancellation charges. This time the respondent was a different person and had no idea what the previous representative told me regarding getting back to me with cancellation charges. This new guy also promised me to get back to me by 21st morning with the required information.
6) After waiting till noon of 21st for their response, I called them again in the afternoon of 21st Dec. They still had no clue of cancellation charges. Frustrated with the support I received, I went ahead with cancellation.
7) Their site says that any booking, having more than 1 day to checkin, can be cancelled. My checkin time was 23rd Dec, noon. I cancelled the booking on 21st Dec, around 4 pm.

8) When I sought for the refund, Mr. Vasantharaja Velusamy replied me on 28th Dec, 2013 stating "the cancellation has been made at a short notice (21/12/2013), hence no refund is allowed as per the hotel’s cancellation policy because the cancellation charges of the hotel equals the entire cost of the booking".

9) This is a clear case of intentionally non-disclosing the information regarding cancellation even after repeated attempt by me through emails and phone only to delay till the last moment so that they can cite excuses like short notice cancellation. I dropped them first email 5 days before the checkin date. I cancelled the booking 40 hours before the checkin time.

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