HBI Staff | Hyderabad 
As per reports, Oyo has furnished fake no-objection certificates (NOCs) for close to 70 hotels/properties to online travel agency (OTA) Booking.com, according to a report in The Economic Times.
The NOCs were provided to change ownership of the properties listed with Booking.com from rival Treebo to Oyo, sources – including hotel owners, told the paper.
Some hotel owners said they got to know of the matter after being asked about it by Treebo, who then also sent them the clarification from Booking.com. The OTA informed Treebo that after conducting necessary checks it had identified the NOC furnished by Oyo were “invalid” and has taken up the matter with Oyo’s management.
Notably, the properties were formerly with Oyo before owners switched to Treebo.
Owner of One Lovelock in Kolkata Vivek Soni told the paper the NOC is fake and he has shifted to Treebo. He alleged Oyo owes him Rs 12 lakh and had deducted 29 percent commission when the agreement was for 14 percent.
Oyo did not respond to the story, as per the report. While Booking.com did not share details it said that partners are required to abide by applicable laws and compliances.
Without naming Oyo, a spokesperson for Treebo told the paper, “a competitor had used fake documents to wrongfully take control of the OTA listings of several of its partner properties.”
It added that as is the case with takeovers, Booking.com intimated Treebo of the NOCs, which their partners (hotel owners) “vehemently denied”. The spokesperson further called it a “fraud act directed at taking advantage of the relative inactivity of hotel owners due to Covid-19.”
