Paid money to suffer. Review on Makemytrip

I booked a trip to Kerela recently. Starting from 23rd of December 2012 (Sunday) to 28th December 2012 (Friday). My trip design was Kochi (1 night) - Munnar (2 nights) - Thekkady (1 night) -> Allepey ( 1 night) -> Kochi. The evening I landed in Kochi I was very much impressed to have been alloted a nice, beautiful and spacious room in "Quality Airport Hotel". After staying at this hotel my hopes soared sky high and I started to feel great about the trip. This was the 1st day.

2nd day => Next morning I started my journey to Munnar and after spending some good time on the roads I reached the hotel in Munnar. The receptionist gave me a warm welcome and I felt good within. Within few minutes he took me to the room and lo "I was in a state of shock". That was the only room available for the next 2 days. It was a very very small room. Even then we consoled ourselves and looked positively for the coming few days. Munnar has a chill climate -

At night, I asked for an extra blanket. You know what ???? The blanket was smelling. However, after calling up the reception they gave us another blanket which seemed fine. After the day's trip I wanted to freshen up and went to the bathroom only to find that there was no warm water. It was fine with me and my wife, but, it was not fine for my young kids!!! We can manage but, not the kids. The reception guy told me that warm water will come after leaving the tap open for 15-20 mins which never happened.

Then when I complained again they mentioned about some problem with the geyser. By God's grace we got some warm water next day for the kids. Thanks to the Almighty ! The food was bad, food delivery took a long long time even though they said that it will be delivered to the room in 30 mins. Upon calling the restaurant they said "You are not the only person staying here, there are other 19 rooms who needs food". Believe me, I never set any time expectation, however, they themselves told me that it will come in 30 mins. Somehow we stayed there for 2 nights. 4th day => We reached Thekkady.

Now, guess what ????? Upon reaching the hotel, the manager in the hotel told me MMT has not released the money and so he will not let me in. My wife and my kids (young kids, one is 6 yrs and the other is 2 yrs old) were standing beside the road. Just imagine, after trying to convince the manager saying that I would pay him money if he lets me stay there. Then he agreed to it. Then after lot of hardships I could get connected to the customer care dept. I told them the issue and when they spoke to the manager, the manager said I don't have to pay. Then I was taken to the *only * room left in the hotel. The room was worse than that in Munnar and the flush tank was not working. I complained about it after sometime and by God's grace I was given another room where things were working. But, remember, the room was not good. Somehow we decided to spend the night and move on.

5th day => En route to Allepey, I called up the hotel (rather homestay) and the gentleman told me that MMT has not paid and hence he would not entertain me. Now, the biggest pain started. I could get in touch with the customer care after 2 hours 30 mins (In between multiple calls got disconnected) . You cannot imagine the trauma I had to go through this time. After speaking to the customer care lady, she escalated the issue and I got a call back from MMT and they arranged a stay in another hotel. Thank God ! Interesting points are: 1. I paid for the hotel booking on 3rd December 2012. 2. Even after 20+ days the non payment of dues 3. Before I started my tour, I called up the hotels and tried to verify if booking in my name has been done. In none of the hotels it was done. 4. I had to call the customer care 'N' number of times to get the booking done. Even after calling numerous times, it was not smooth. 5. They told me at the time of booking that all the hotels are at least 3-star.

I can agree only with the 1st hotel in Kochi that it is a 3-star. 6. Before I paid for the booking, I got multiple calls from MMT. After paying, I had to make calls to get the things done. After all these, I decided never to opt for MMT again. I was planning for few more trips to Europe, US, South Africa, Thailand, Singapore etc.... Now, I will have to visit other companies for all my future trips. But, to look at the positive side, I learned by the hard way in my own country. Had it happened in any other country then God knows..

From this bad experience, at least I will make my verification even more stringent for my future trips.

Thanks MMT for giving me a chance to learn !!!