ARAMBOL: A family from Bihar was cheated after they realised that the hotel that they had booked online did not exist in reality at Arambol.
The respective family on Tuesday arrived from the airport to Drishti Point at Arambol, where they were supposed to stay.
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They had done an online booking of the hotel with a swimming pool in the area back in October. However, the Drishti Point area has only huts.
After arriving at the spot, they tried to contact the hotel authorities only to find that the phone number was being switched off.
The family also enquired with the people present in the parking area but they told them that no hotel with such a name exists. It is learnt that they booked another hotel later at night.
“The Delhi hotel business owners have occupied the coastal stretch. They put up attractive pictures of hotel rooms with plush interiors on their online sites only for the visitors to be disappointed when reality hits them. 80 per cent of the amount is taken in advance and due to the no-refund policy, customers get trapped,” said local business owner Sanjay Kole.
Since visitors come for a short duration, locals opine that they do not waste their time in filing a complaint and getting involved in time-consuming investigations. However, locals have appealed for the Goa Police Cyber Crime Department to look into such matters as they bring bad reputation to Goa and local hotel owners.
