The complainant, Shubham, stated that he had planned a holiday in Pattaya, Bangkok. As such, he booked his round-trip flight tickets on October 22, 2019 from MMT.
The State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission directed Make My Trip India Private Limited (MMT), a tour and travel firm, to pay Rs 92,308 to a Chandigarh resident for negligence, for being unable to hotel booking in Bangkok for the complainant.
Due to this, the customer had to remain in detention centre at Bangkok airport, and pay 1040 Thai Bhatt as expense for it.
The complainant, Shubham, stated that he had planned a holiday in Pattaya, Bangkok. As such, he booked his round-trip flight tickets on October 22, 2019 from MMT.
The complainant also made a prepaid hotel reservation for ‘JP Villa Hotel, Pattaya’ from MMT’s website on October 10 for staying in Bangkok from November 15 to November 18.
When he reached Bangkok on November 15, the immigration officer wanted to check the return flight ticket as well as accommodation arrangements to stay in the city, which are prerequisite for obtaining a visa on arrival.
“Thereafter, the immigration officer called the said hotel, was shocked to know that there was no reservation, due to which, the immigration officer did not allow the complainant to exit from Bangkok airport and he was taken to Airport Jail (Detention Centre). The complainant incurred 1040 Thai Bhatt as expenses for staying in airport jail vide receipt. The complainant tried to contact telephonically the helpline of the Opposite Parties numerous times but to no avail,” stated the complaint.
The immigration officer asked Shubham to return back to India immediately, as such, he called his parents, who contacted the travel agent and booked his return ticket for November 16.
Shubham contacted MMT on reaching back, where an employee of MMT admitted the mistake and told that the hotel reservation could not be processed due to a server error, adding that the company would compensate for the said error with Rs 3.000 plus the amount of hotel reservation and the said employee also sent SMS in this regard.
On November 19, 2019, the firm refunded a sum of Rs 4,274 as hotel booking charges, but no compensation was paid, following which Shubham filed a complaint at the Consumer Commission.
Make My Trip India Private Limited in reply submitted that the issuance of confirmed booking/hotel vouchers, they discharged their duties and obligations qua the complainant and also paid full amount of the booking which is Rs 46,49 and even offered Rs 3000 along with Future Travel Vouchers “FTV” worth Rs 500 and the same was accepted by the complainant.
It was further stated that they acted merely as a facilitator for booking the air tickets and hotel on behalf of the customers with the concerned service providers and upon request of the customer, forwarded the same to the concerned hotel/hospitality service providers and on receipt the confirmation from them, the booking ID was generated and confirmation was shared with the customer.
The Commission after hearing the arguments held that it is clear that there was negligence on the part of MMT because the deportation reflected upon the permanent international record of the complainant and he is now doomed to face undue hardship in securing a visa or employment opportunities in other countries.
In the present dispute, MMT were service providers to the extent that they had to give confirmed booking details to the complainant, whereas, the details of confirmed booking given by the MMT were not true and they had tried to deceive the complainant by giving him fake details.
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