Hello Team Oyo,

It was the most pathetic experience I had to encounter in my entire career. We booked OYO TOWNHOUSE 012 KAUSHAMBI (GZB054) banquet for an evening birthday party (19 Oct) for our guest. As agreed at the time of confirmation we paid 25% of the booking amount and received guaranteed confirmation about the venue and dinner arrangements.

Mr. Bhanwar Solanki, the banquet manager of the property was in touch since day 01 and was in conversation with me and my guest for any enquiries. His replies and conversation during the same were satisfactory.

On the day of function, suddenly he went unresponsive and didn’t respond to my guest’s calls. He picked up his phone when I called him around 1600 hrs and he conveyed that there is another event going on, which will be clear by 1800 hrs - much of our understanding as our timing was from 1800 hrs.

Our guest with some of his family members went to the venue around 1815 hrs for some decoration arrangements. To their surprise there was no cleaning or readying the banquet in process until 1900 hrs. It was again when I called Mr. Solanki, he said that the venue will be ready in 15-20 minutes.

Fortunately, I was invited for the event and reached the venue at 1930 hrs to face one of the worst experiences – Mr. Solanki denied to organise the event because the kitchen and cleaning staff had called a strike. My guest (although a close friend) gave a tough look and he was completely shattered by the situation as his invited guests and relatives had started coming in and some even heard the brawl with Mr. Solanki. Mr. Solanki, was not ready to accept the responsibility and started talking of shifting the venue or bringing some packed food outside, etc. etc. He kept on speaking that the situation is out of his control and upon asking who is the owner of the property, he replied that Mr. Ritesh Agarwal is the owner and responsible for all this.

The guest’s entire family members were panicked as the A/c in the banquet was not put-on and they just had 02 high speed rusted iron table fans in the corner.

In the meantime, my guest had a conversation with the kitchen staff and tried to convince him to prepare food as it was practically impossible for an alternate arrangement in the last hour. I myself went out of mind and had a heated conversation with Mr. Solanki upon which the kitchen staff called off their strike and said they are ready to cook (it was around 2000 hrs then).

For 50 pax they said they will cook an entire 05 course menu in an hour. I myself stood inside and near the kitchen so that they don’t further delay. It was hard time managing the function and keeping the invited guests unaware of the situation. They had to wait for the banquet to start as there were children and senior citizens.

The kitchen staff was not provided with the booked menu list and I had to remind them of every item to cook - which they did. The buffet started at 2130 hrs. The so quick preparation surely had its impact and the food quality was it its best low with several items still missing.

Upon asking the kitchen staff that why they were on strike - they said they were not paid their daily wages since last 10-15 days and whenever asked they were abused by the property management. Left no other option to secure their hard-earned money they had to strike.

During the entire function the hall was operational with just 01 A/c, for which excused that there are some technical errors which cannot be solved at the moment.

There was no communication from any Oyo staff during this entire scenario of unfortunate happenings. At the end of the function Mr. Solanki came upon asking for the balance payment. For which I said we won’t pay until we raise a compliant to Oyo. Upon which he put me on call with Mr. Awdesh, handling PAN India operations, and the call was clearly to just say sorry and convince us to pay, which I politely denied for the moment.

My company or the guest was expecting a courtesy call from Oyo the entire day today, but seems you people hardly care and it may be a happening on regular basis.