A few weeks ago, I used ExtendedStay, who seem to specialize in Madhya Pradesh travel, to make a reservation for three nights at the Madhai Wildlife Resort on the edge of the Satpura sanctuary in MP. ExtendedStay charged me Rs 10470. It was a nearly last minute thing, it was Diwali season, we were in a rush, so I trusted them and paid. Naive I know, but I’ve used plenty of other online agents (Cleartrip, for one) without any problems, so I didn’t think much about it.
It was a fine stay in a gorgeous spot. (More about that soon in a review of the Madhai resort). Then we spoke to the owner of the Resort, who told us what ExtendedStay had paid him for those three nights: Rs 5100, which was the Resort’s price anyway.
i.e. Had I approached the Resort directly, this Rs 5100 is what I would have paid. (I have this in writing from him, as part of my final bill). I didn’t approach the Resort directly because it was ExtendedStay who first suggested the Resort to me, and I thought it only fair then to go through them.
But this meant that ExtendedStay had charged me a commission of Rs 5370, i.e. over 100 percent. No travel agent I know of, no online site, would do this.
On raising this with Vishwas Tiwari, the person I dealt with at ExtendedStay, he replied, and I quote: "What you are trying to do is whining over pizza price after consuming it, haggling to return the ticket after completing the journey and trying to buy insurance after hitting a pedestrian."
So here’s my advice, if you plan to travel in MP: visit Madhai and the Madhai Wildlife Resort for sure. But stay far away from ExtendedStay.