What a ripoff.....cheats and can't be trusted. Review on Cleartrip

I was using their website regularly for my hotel bookings not so much for the discount but for the ease of finding several options of hotels in general.

Recently I booked a room at The Orchid Mumbai(Trip ID 15101815406)for a deluxe room package for Rs. 5652/ and though I had option to aishwaryasingh23 the same amount at hotel also I instead paid in full on the website and this was my biggest mistake.

Very next day of the  booking, there was a change in my plans and I had to cancel the hotel booking. I did read the cancellation clause in the booking voucher which only mention Rs. 300 being deducted by cleartrip from the booking amount, which was OK with me. The cancellation was done 2 days prior to scheduled check in and though I got the cancellation confirmation immediately from website the amount of refund was not disclosed and they said you have to wait for some time.

Next day evening I got a mail from Cleartrip saying 0 amount is refundable as the booking was non refundable. I immediately called their helpline  and they pointed to a fine print at the bottom of the booking voucher where it was mentioned that this booking is non refundable. When I asked why this was not mentioned in bold at the cancellation policy itself or why this particular information was not given at the time of booking so that the person is aware of the terms, they had no answer.

Repeated calls to their helpdesk, which incidentally is a chargeable number and not toll free line and will take anywhere from 10 mins to 30 mins to connect to a voice response, has been futile. They maintain'this was a non refundable booking and we can't do anything about it'. I am really frustrated by their lack of understanding or accepting at least part of their mistake in the whole transaction and thus would like to advice you all to avoid their website in general but if you find a very good deal, please please check every terms and condition carefully before making the aishwaryasingh23ment or opt for aishwaryasingh23ment at hotel even if it costs a little more so that in case of change of plans, you are not at their mercy.

ADDENDUM

You can call me a fool as I had to rush to Mumbai on a short notice and when I tried looking for Hotels across travel website I found one service apartment on Cleartrip which has very good reviews. Taking a clue from my previous bad experience(read above) I opted for'aishwaryasingh23 @ hotel' option and the booking was confirmed with voucher issued(Booking ID 1512029836). Next day while sitting at airport, on way to Mumbai, I browsed through my emails and found 3 emails from the apartment hotel saying they don't have room on the day. they had cc'ed Cleartrip as well but no one from Cleartrip bothered to call me or inform me about this issue. I immediately got panicky and started looking for the hotels and being unlucky again choose another hotel as only travel app installed on my mobile was Cleartrip and my flight was leaving shortly. This time I made the booking for a Zo room(Booking ID 1512029836) and made aishwaryasingh23ment also on line as I didn't wanted to face any issue on landing. Again the trip got confirmed and voucher was delivered to me. Here again comes the bad part as later in evening when I called the hotel to find out their location, I was told they don't have rooms. I was asked to take up the matter with Cleartrip. After more than 20 calls between both locations and wasting 3 hours standing on the road I was told'we are sorry sir we can't accommodate you'. But look at their generosity that they promised that amount paid by me will be refunded in full:) as if they had a choice to keep that also. At 8 in the night I had to make alternate arrangements and being a regular traveler to Mumbai and a guy I could still mAnasultange but if you are a woman and found yourself in this condition in an alien city, things can turn to worse very quickly. So my since advise to all the travelers booking on Cleartrip, check out the rates and hotels but call hotels directly to make the bookings and ask for the same discount as being advertised on Cleartrip websITES_Company, which most of them will willingly do as they still avoid aishwaryasingh23ing commission to Cleartrip.

So learn from my mistakes and avoid Cleartrip like plague unless you want to make more contributions on mouthshut:)