FHRAI advises members to refund travel agents

The pan-India body for hospitality professionals has requested their members to refund 100% deposit on bookings made by travel agents. Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, Vice President, Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI) and President of HRAWI, has said, “We have advised all our hotel members to give 100 per cent refunds to the travel agents through whom the bookings have come. Some of them may have not done so. But they are definitely deferring the dates. We have advised them not to do this because at the time of crisis to gain the confidence of the guest, one must offer immediate and 100 per cent refund whenever asked for. Of course, deferment of dates is already there. We request the travel agents to try and influence the airlines – certain airlines have not been kind enough to refund. They are only offering a change of date. Unfortunately, that is not how it will work specially at a time like this. We are a service industry and customer is of prime importance.”