I have been saving for months to take a holiday on the coast. Months of hard work and hopes of a happy holiday had built up an excitement with my family (myself, my wife and my 6 year old son). Searching for deals, and researching the properties, I came across a beach resort called “Bogmallo Beach Resort”. I looked it up on the internet, located it on Google Earth and found that it was an ideal location. I read up on the amenities and the facility. I was mostly satisfied that this resort fit my budget and expectation. I agreed to book the hotel with their handling agents at the following travel agency:
Savion Travel Services Pvt. Ltd.
Phone: +91-120-4242181
Fax: +91-120-4242185
Email: manav@saviontravel.com
The Resort Details are:
Bogmallo Beach Resort
Telephone Nos. +91-832-2538222 to 235
E-mail: bbrtwhl@sancharnet.in / bbrsales@rediffmail.com
The cost of a 6-night, 7-day stay at Bogmallo Beach Resort was Rs. 29776.00.
As I live in Bangalore, the trip to Goa by car is a minimum of one full day. We left early and arrived at the Bogmallo Resort at approximately 3:00 PM. It was quite a relief to reach the destination after the long drive and a lot of anticipation for the well-deserved time off.
After check-in, I politely asked the check-in clerk about their pet policy, and she informed me that pets were not allowed in the hotel. I am quite familiar with these policies as they are made for the worst-case scenarios and the rule assumes that all pets are the 5 foot, 200 lb. dogs. I informed the clerk that the pet was a baby Shih Tzu dog, barley 3 months old, still unable to bark or be a mischief. The clerk asked a superior, and told me that the policy on pet at the resort was that I could not only not have the pet in the hotel premises, but it wasn’t even allowed to stay with my driver in the car, as long as the car was in the hotel parking lot. I have stayed at quite a lot of hotels in India where the pet policy does not allow the pet in the room, but this was the first time that I was hearing that the pet could not be kept in the car while the car was in the hotel premises. I asked to talk to the supervisor, who introduced himself as merely “Gautham” and that he was the duty manager. He promptly told me that the policy of the hotel was to not allow pets past the front gate.
At this point, I was resigned to follow the policy, and asked Gautham to assist me in removing the bags from the car with the help of the bellboys. Gautham started screaming at me, telling me that the pet was not allowed, and that I should “Get out of here”. I tried to reason with him that I was agreeing to have the driver move the car off the premises as soon as the bags were removed. He did not calm down, and insisted that I go away. As I had prepaid for the hotel for the next 6 nights, I asked him to refund me the payment and I will go away.
At this point, he became very apologetic and started being very nice. He said that he had a solution and that I should listen to his option first, before deciding to “Go Away”. He offered me a cottage for the driver and the dog at a cost of Rs. 1,000 per night. I asked that I be shown the cottage.
The next morning, I got a call from my driver to inform me that the head of the house keeping staff had asked him to remove the dog from the cottage, but the driver could stay. I was quite surprised at this, and went to talk to the housekeeper. I was personally informed of the same rule as per Gautham the day before. I assured her that Gautham made the arrangement and that she check with him prior to asking me to evict the dog. She told me that she had already consulted with a “director”
I found this very strange, and proceeded to the front desk to talk to a supervisor or manager. I was introduced to a person who told me that he was the manager on duty and that the rule on the pets stood. I informed him of the arrangement made by Gautham, and he called Gautham on his mobile phone. Gautham apparently informed this manager that he had made an error in allowing the dog in the cottage.
When I was informed of this error on Gautham’s part, I was firstly glad that Gautham agreed that the arrangement was made, but also surprised that he called it an error. I asked the manager at this point whether Gautham asking me to “Get out of here” was also an error. At this comment all present were aghast. They did not believe that a senior manager of the resort had asked a checked in Guest to get out !
The manager did not want to listen to any logic of the dog staying in the car by himself, and the car be removed from the premises. At this point I started thinking the “Get out of here” comment from Gautham was being re-voiced and that there was no room for this type of ignorance and cruelty thoughts of the management of Bogmallo towards a pet.
I offered to leave as the management had insisted to be unreasonable after Gautham had already made an arrangement, without which I was asking for a refund and driving away. The manager agreed to give me a refund, but told me that Savion Travel had not yet sent the money down to Bogmallo, and therefore gave me an invoice for the day’s stay and a letter indicating that I had only stayed at the resort for the one night. They also presented me with a bill for the cottage and a drink at dinner of Rs. 1,045.00. I was assured that Savion will make the refund and that I should pay the extra charges. I took the letters and the invoice and left the resort without getting a refund, and paying for the incidentals per the presented invoice for the same.
As I could not find any booking at another hotel or resort, we decided to end the holiday and drive back to Bangalore the very same afternoon. I got back to Bangalore at around 3:00 a.m. the following morning. I wrote an email to Savion, enclosing scanned copies of the invoice for the day’s stay and the letter indicating that I only stayed at the resort for one night in support of my claim for the refund.
A Mr. Gaurav Khanna of Savion Travel informed me that the money had already been sent to Bogmallo Beach Resort prior to my arrival at the resort and that he could not refund the money until Bogmallo sent the money back. He informed me that he would get in touch with them and revert. In response he sent me an email indicating that there will be no refund of the payment made and that someone from Bogmallo will get in touch with me to discuss this. No one ever called me.
I called and emailed Savion Travel several times, proactively and each time I was given the same story that they did not have the money and that the upper management from Bogmallo will call. Names given at Bogmallo were a Mr. Savio and Mr. Dial. I further took it upon myself to call these individuals at Bogmallo and was informed on the several occasions that either they were in a meeting, out or unavailable.
I called Savion Travel and I got an email from them on 28th, indicating to me that Bogmallo categorically indicated that there will be no refund as the cancellation policy of the resort was clear.
To state the facts, they kicked me out, and I did not cancel. They indicated to me that there will be a refund. They even gave me an invoice for the one night’s stay. They also extracted more money from me on the incidentals over and above keeping the charges for the 5 nights stay.
This has frustrated me to no end, and my wife and child are suffering from the stress, tension and loss that I have incurred to these scam artists at Savion Travel and Bogmallo Beach Resort, not to mention some 24 hours of driving and loss of a holiday.
Bogmallo Beach Resort has robbed me of the money, lied to me and ridiculed me to believing that they actually tried to help me, while they were busy picking my pocket. I also feel that Savion Travel should have been a lot more concerned that a “client” that they provided to Bogmallo was mistreated.
Narendra Patel
Tel: +91 99725 30855
