I made the mistake of booking a Hotel reservation through Travelguru.com to visit Pondicherry. Since my banker is Citibank and they are the travel partner to Travelguru.com. The link from the site carried me to Travelguru.com. My booking ID was CITI0000599951.
I was to be offered a 10% discount on the booking the same was not given as I did not mention it at the time of booking though I used a Citibank card to book the same as told by Travel Guru Customer care .
Another thing when I checked with the hotel post booking before 15 days they were not aware of the any booking. I had to call customer care and get it confirmed. Imagine if a traveler reaches and finds out no booking even after booking. Anyway I had visit on December 31 st 2011 and 1st January.
Pondicherry had its worst cyclone named Thane on 30th of the century . Ten people were killed and power and phone services were shut down . This was an act of god. I had to travel by road . ECR road was not motorable. I called the hotel nobody was answering for past 2 days. I had to cancel the trip for my family safety.
Travel Guru however would go by its rules and I was not entitled to a refund that I had cancelled it on 30th a day before the journey . I had to cancel it on 29th as per them. So much for its customer. I can bet they do not pay hotel in advance. They have kept my money with themselves.
I wrote a mail to them for a refund which has been responded to with customary get back to you reply. I would tell like to tell that this travel site is untrustworthy, bureaucratic in its approach. The road to profits is built by reputation and keeping promises and good word of mouth publicity. I have every reason to believe other customers would have worse experiences to tell. I would advise every traveler to boycott this site for its poor service and complete customer apathy.
Travel Guru has a duplicate site by Travelocity.co.in. Avoid like plaque.