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Nishant Dixit
Tech enthusiast, Editor in Chief, CEO and co-founder @Cuttinglet.

My First Experience with OYO ROOMS

The year was 2015 when I was watching an interview of this slender looking guy. He had created something that he claimed could change how people travel. I looked it up and found out about OYO ROOMS. I immediately followed it on Twitter and Facebook and started looking in depth of what this OYO ROOMS is.

The philosophy was to give travellers a piece of mind; by making sure that the place they’re staying at, was meeting the minimum requirements, the modern day travellers need.

A promise they’re making was of Free Wifi (which I humbly adore), Clean Linen(for the germ freak inside me), sanitized bathroom (for that special time), Complimentary Breakfast (who doesn’t love a call for breakfast straight out of bed) and ease of booking — which they do, but that’s about the only thing they do.

Yes, after so much waiting, I was on my Quarterly Vacation (I made a pact that I will go on vacation every three months, I could go every month but once every three months was a promise to myself) and then I booked my first room on OYO ROOMS and believe me, you don’t have any choice after you’ve followed all the hype they have created.

I reached Dehradun around 7.30 PM and the first thing I needed to do was get a shower after that tiring 7 hours of travelling through road. I looked on the OYO ROOMS APP and it showed me a budget room (okay, not so budgeted, you could get a room anywhere for 1200 Rs) it took me not more than 30 seconds to book the room and for that — HATS OFF.

I reached the property (the app also had a built in navigation to show me the way), the manager called the house keeper to leave me to my room and that’s where it all started.

I was tired through all the travel, so I ordered from the Hotel Restaurant and after waiting for around 45 minutes(I didn’t mind that because I was busy unpacking and took a shower in the meantime), some weird looking guy knocked on my door, Opened it (without even asking), left the tray on my bed and left the room. That’s it.

I hopped on the bed, to start DINING and there were hairs on the bed sheets(Ewwww). So, I moved my dinner to the table in my room and Started munching.

I ordered a Sandwich and a coffee with some other stuff and then I called the reception again, to remind them to sending the KETCHUP with sandwich (who eats a sandwich without ketchup — certainly, not me.)

The same weird looking guy knocked again and instantly opened the door, without even bothering to wait for my answer and handed me two sachets of ketchup and left again, in a moment.

I was too hungry at the moment, to judge him, so I started tearing the ketchup sachets and I was shocked, the tomato ketchup was branded as McDonald’s. Anyway, I started eating the sandwich and noticed that pungent smell from the sandwich but that wasn’t the sandwich that was smelling, it was the ketchup.

Both of the Sachets had expired in 2014. And that was a bit too much. I just ate something that expired two years ago. That was DISGUSTING.

I called OYO and explained the situation to them and I got a call from them in just 10 minutes. The service executive told me that he had personally called the Property Manager and he will visit me in a minute. But before disconnecting the call, I got a knock on my door from the property manager.

I opened the door, and It was the worst moment of my life. The guy was drunk as hell and the stinky fumes were coming to me from more than 5 feet away. It was clear from the smell that he was drinking what we call “Desi Daaru (Local Booze)”.

He asked me to leave my room and move to another room in the middle of the night. I mean, I had just unpacked. I had too carry all my things to the other room on the upper floor in two rounds and anyone from the Hotel Staff didn’t bothered helping me.

The worst part was, OYO assumed that my problem had been resolved and no one called me again. I left the hotel first thing in the morning, without having that complimentary breakfast. And called OYO again to explain to them what happened last night and they assured me again, that the concerned department will call me again.

Except this time the assurance was empty. No one called me that day or the next day or in the next 3days. The one who called again and again was me. I was demanding an explanation for what happened to me 350 KMs away from home, in the middle of the night.

But I got a call, today on 5th April 2016 and 1.00 AM in the night. I picked it up and the guy named Shahnawaz straight away asked me “Sir, how was your experience with OYO.” I was blown away by this. I was calling them 3 times a day for 5 days and they ask me — how was my experience?

When I explained to him again for the n-hundredth time about what happened that night the only thing he said is that “Sir, what I can do from here is, as a friendly gesture from the company — I can provide you with a 300 Rs voucher on your next booking.”

And for a moment, I felt abused in a way I had never before.

So here is a summary of what happened

  • I booked the room
  • I took shower in a ugly bathroom
  • I ordered dinner from Hotel Restaurant
  • I ate expired Ketchup and that too was from McDonald’s
  • I called OYO
  • The Property Manager came drunk in my room
  • I changed room in the middle of the night.
  • I called OYO again demanding an explanation.
  • I called them regularly for 5 days but the so-called concerned department never called me.
  • I got a call from them at 1.00 AM in the night
  • I explained the situation to the service representative again.
  • He offered me 300Rs Vouchers as a goodwill gesture in return for happened to me.

Now a personal message to OYO.

I have seen startups becoming companies and companies getting ruined. I am covering startups for more than 5 years so I have little bit if not vast knowledge about how startups become companies and the only thing that matter is PHILOSOPHY.

It’s not about what happened and what you did.

It is about how you wanted to do that and how you chose to do that.

I know that you guys couldn’t have done anything that day but what you shouldn’t have done is offer me 300Rs Vouchers in return for trusting you guys. I know that you couldn’t control the way properties are run but what you could and you should do is at least pretend that you care for the people that choose to be with you instead of going the traditional way.

I gave OYO my trust, I didn’t had anything valuable

I have not yet received a single call or email for the sole purpose of you guys wanting to know about what happened to me. All you cared about whether I will recommend OYO to my friends and family and here’s my answer — NO, I WON’T. I will not recommend OYO to anyone.

You can’t claim to change the way the world travel with this thinking. No one can. It’s as simple as that.

P.S. — Did I mention that there was now WiFi. Yes, there wasn’t and there was nothing OYO did about that.