NEW DELHI: A year after the Tourism Ministry floated guidelines for online travel aggregators (OTAs) to ensure quality standards and services for tourists, no aggregator has signed up for the ministry’s accreditation.
The objective of approving OTAs was to encourage quality services while promoting tourism in the country and bring OTAs on a common platform.
“It has been a year but OTAs have not come forward seeking approval... Since the scheme is a voluntary one, the ministry cannot ask for mandatory approval but only encourages the OTAs to apply for this,” said a senior Tourism Ministry official.
The idea for the accreditation process was to clamp down on complaints from tourists where they face difficulty while checking into hotels and homestays and suffer from poor refunds from the chain of leased and franchised hotels.
Under the guidelines, it would be mandatory for the OTA to carry out physical verification of all homestays and bed & breakfast establishments listed on its platform.
The ministry’s guidelines said an OTA may list the travel-related service providers/agents or other service providers like hotels, homestays on its platform under its brand.
“On an average, we receive at least 30 complaints from tourists on Oyo Hotels and Homes. In these cases, the customers have paid online and when they reach the hotel, they are told there is no tie-up between the hotel and Oyo. The complaints say the refund process is dismal too,” said the official.
However, this is beyond the ministry’s jurisdiction. “Our only response in these cases is the customers can approach the consumer court,” the official added.
Responding to a query, OYO spokesperson said, “OYO Hotels & Homes is a chain of leased and franchised hotels just like all the other hotel chains world over hence the question of signing up for the guidelines for OTAs doesn’t arise... Over time we are continuously improving our refund systems and processes to keep in mind the requirements of our on-the-go customers...”.
Who are online travel aggregators?
OTAs are agents selling travel products and services such as the airline tickets, car rentals, cruise lines, hotels/accommodation, railways and vacation packages on behalf of suppliers using internet as a medium, as described by the ministry.