4 ms·

As a customer, I find OYO hotels to be very bad. There are hotels that I otherwise would not even have gone to (since low end hotels in India are appallingly fi

by sn41 8y ago

As a customer, I find OYO hotels to be very bad. There are hotels that I otherwise would not even have gone to (since low end hotels in India are appallingly filthy), but the OYO label lends them greater credibility. I avoid OYO when I can. A general thumb rule I follow for booking hotels in India is : if you are staying with family, go for hotels priced around or more than 40-50% of the price of the top end chain hotels in that city. For example, in Delhi, try not to book any hotel priced below Rs. 3500 per night. Chances are high that it may be cockroach-infested and grimy. Many of these now have the dreaded OYO label attached to them.

balladeer 8y ago
TripAdvisor ratings are very indicative and the portal usually shows prices from various booking sites. Then I call the hotel directly and 90% of time I get a better price and a room of choice guaranteed right them which is not at all possible over booking sites where you get a room type and get assigned one when you check-in. Definitely direct booking when the property is on AirBnb - in this case almost always owners themselves ask me to book directly with them and bypass AirBnb. You are bang on about the cost threshold. Pro-tip: for real hotel locations use Google Maps in satellite mode. Esp. useful in hill stations and beaches - you'll avoid hotels that claim to have a view but forget to mention it's the bus-stand view.
- babaganoosh89 8y ago
  How much can you get off by calling hotels? Maybe 10-20% off Expedia prices?
  - balladeer 8y ago
    Yatra, Booking, and Agoda are what I usually check. Yes, around 10-25% I’d say and usually the discussed price (over phone) is final i.e no additional taxes unlike on portals where after you go for checkout tax will be extra, sometimes other myriad of fees. On rare occasions I have been actually told to book from booking sites as they won’t be able to offer better prices :-)
unmole 8y ago
As a counterpoint, I've been happy with Oyo hotels. I've stayed in Oyo hotels in Kerala, Gujarat, Delhi, Mumbai and Bihar and of them were decent. The only trouble I've had on one occasion was locating the hotel.
kamaal 8y ago
>>Chances are high that it may be cockroach-infested and grimy. Also there are likely other things going in the hotel, where you don't want your family to stay at the same time. Basically 'Hotel Decent' kind of ones they show in the move 'Jab We Met'.
woodandsteel 8y ago
>As a customer, I find OYO hotels to be very bad. There are hotels that I otherwise would not even have gone to (since low end hotels in India are appallingly filthy), but the OYO label lends them greater credibility. If that was the case, then everyone would use them only one time, and never again. And they would tell all their friends, who would never even try it once. And the whole POYO enterprise would have gone bankrupt within a year of its founding. But that's not what happened, so I tend to believe that OYO recommendtions are in fact reliable, except in rare cases.

by sn41 8y ago

balladeer 8y ago

TripAdvisor ratings are very indicative and the portal usually shows prices from various booking sites. Then I call the hotel directly and 90% of time I get a better price and a room of choice guaranteed right them which is not at all possible over booking sites where you get a room type and get assigned one when you check-in. Definitely direct booking when the property is on AirBnb - in this case almost always owners themselves ask me to book directly with them and bypass AirBnb. You are bang on about the cost threshold. Pro-tip: for real hotel locations use Google Maps in satellite mode. Esp. useful in hill stations and beaches - you'll avoid hotels that claim to have a view but forget to mention it's the bus-stand view.

babaganoosh89 8y ago
How much can you get off by calling hotels? Maybe 10-20% off Expedia prices?
- balladeer 8y ago
  Yatra, Booking, and Agoda are what I usually check. Yes, around 10-25% I’d say and usually the discussed price (over phone) is final i.e no additional taxes unlike on portals where after you go for checkout tax will be extra, sometimes other myriad of fees. On rare occasions I have been actually told to book from booking sites as they won’t be able to offer better prices :-)

unmole 8y ago

As a counterpoint, I've been happy with Oyo hotels. I've stayed in Oyo hotels in Kerala, Gujarat, Delhi, Mumbai and Bihar and of them were decent. The only trouble I've had on one occasion was locating the hotel.

kamaal 8y ago

>>Chances are high that it may be cockroach-infested and grimy. Also there are likely other things going in the hotel, where you don't want your family to stay at the same time. Basically 'Hotel Decent' kind of ones they show in the move 'Jab We Met'.

woodandsteel 8y ago

>As a customer, I find OYO hotels to be very bad. There are hotels that I otherwise would not even have gone to (since low end hotels in India are appallingly filthy), but the OYO label lends them greater credibility. If that was the case, then everyone would use them only one time, and never again. And they would tell all their friends, who would never even try it once. And the whole POYO enterprise would have gone bankrupt within a year of its founding. But that's not what happened, so I tend to believe that OYO recommendtions are in fact reliable, except in rare cases.