Hotel Oliver — Hotel in Mumbai

Booked it through Expedia on 9th Oct, chose the option PAY Later and got the confirmation with Booking id FOCK7916. We three along with one senior citizen 70+ had to participate in Mumbai Marathon 2016 which was a new place for us and chose this location based upon the BIB collection center location i.e Cuff Parade and Marathon starting point location i.e. Azad Maidan. But even then OYO didn't confirm the same and asked me to pay at least 30% as a booking amount. After talking to OYO customer care, he finally agreed to confirm the booking. But month's later on 7th Nov, they updated the room to some Apollo Guest House without informing me or getting any confirmation from me. Once again contacted the OYO customer care, they asked me to deposit the either entire amount or partial amount to keep the booking intact. So on their suggestion, I had paid the entire amount on 8th Nov and asked him to update the hotel to Oliver Hotel Colaba. I thought the matter is sorted down as I have paid the entire amount. In Dec end, I once again called the OYO customer care and confirmed my booking one more time to avoid any hassle at last hour and they verified and assured me that you have paid the full amount so you need to worry and no need to confirm again as your booking is confirmed. But to my surprise and shock, when I was about to fly from Chandigarh on 15th Jan(day of checkin) at 1:00 PM, they updated Hotel Booking to some other place, which was far away from the current place, without taking any affirmation from me either through phone or email. I called multiple times to OYO customer care executive but everyone was giving their own lame excuses and forwarding my call to escalation department who was not picking up my phone. It really frustrated me a lot but left with no other choice then to stay in third class hotel where linen, bed, couches, curtains were not up to the mark. I don't know whether this is the model that OYO guys are following to keep frustrating and harassing their customers to earn hard earned money. I'm not going to make any booking with OYO henceforth rest it's up to...

So before I booked this hotel I have gone through the reviews and everything and 90% I found were all unsatisfied guest and poor reviews. But I still had to book this cuz I myself wanted to experience and secondly cuz of it’s location which is in Colaba and is just in the opposite lane to the Taj Hotel, Mumbai. And that’s the only good thing about this hotel that is location. This damn OYO changed my room type I booked to another room type which I haven’t. As I clearly remembered that I’ve booked myself for a 3X king bed cuz of the room size and later the booking was showing something else as I walked in to the hotel. As I reached and wanted to check-in, the reception guy told me that they are totally sold out and have no room left for me. So if you were really sold out then how come in the first place did you accept my booking? Then he said, since I haven’t paid for the room online they’ve got one room for me that he later showed me and I was told that I’ll have to share the bathroom. And I was like what????? |I saw the room which was just in front of the small reception area and I didn’t even enter the room and the room was finished! That was the SMALLEST ROOM I’VE SEEN IN MY LIFE, with only single bed and a mirror to see your face. Next to it there was again a SHARED kitchen which looked totally dirty and stinky. To my more surprise, I was told that I will have to use a shared bathroom which will be used by everyone including the staff and the bathroom is just next to the reception where the guy sits. So initially OYO played this trick with me that they changed my booked room type to some other category and upon arriving at the reception after travelling for hours from different city, reception tells that there’s no room left. And the room that they showed me was going for more than 2.5k. Like seriously? Do you guys think it’s a joke? They are simply sitting there to make money by fooling people and not even giving a service up to a one star hotel. So better chose to stay at a nice dormitory than even thinking of booking...

Once we managed to sort out checking-in we had a great stay at Hotel Oliver. The location is excellent and within easy walking distance of everything that Colaba has to offer. This is a great part of the city to stay in and a lot of fun. It is a bit touristy but not overly so and a good introduction to India.||||The rooms are on par with other Mumbai hotels which means the cleanliness is not always great (main issue here is a bit of mildew but nothing serious), the room is not serviced during the stay, and the building is a bit older (with all the problems this brings!) The hotel has gone a long way to making up for some of the normal issues in Mumbai and the rooms have water pressure pumps and hot water heaters so that supply is reliable.||||I think all of the rooms are on the ground floor (ours was) and not all have windows. Ours had a private bathroom which again is not always the case. The street is fairly quiet at night and the location seemed to be safe.||||Staff were good during the check-in debacle and polite and friendly during the stay. They are very insistent about leaving passports with them during the stay - I resisted and this caused a bit of confusion.||||Breakfast is again like most Mumbai hotels - a little odd so don't expect what you'd get in most other cities! Usually just an "omelette" (it's not really like an omelette but it is edible and enough to start the day) and some bread and instant coffee.||||Check-in issues: Booked and paid with Expedia but when we arrived the hotel had no knowledge of our booking. The staff at the hotel were very helpful in trying to sort out the issue, made a number of phone calls to Expedia to try to get the booking confirmation and allowed me to call Expedia's Customer support using their phone. Whilst I was on the phone to customer support Expedia sent an email cancelling my booking. I had to pay the hotel direct and wait for a refund from Expedia. Staff said this happens all the time with Expedia and encouraged me to book...