The Sikkim Hotel & Restaurant Association has decided not to honour the bookings made by MakeMyTrip and Goibibo from Wednesday since the two online portals are yet to address the concerns raised by the hospitality industry.

Pema Lamta, the SHRA president, in a release issued to The Telegraph on Tuesday said the decision to close inventory for the two portals was taken in support of the joint call given by the parent associations representing the hospitality industry - the Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI) and the Hotel & Restaurant Association of Eastern India.

“The FHRAI and HREAI have in an official appeal requested all members not to honour Goibibo-MMT bookings from January 16, 2019 and have also requested that the contracts with Goibibo-MMT should be terminated immediately,” she said.

The five concerns raised by the industry include no coupon code discounting on hotels from online travel agencies (OTAs), commission level to be set at 15 per cent, no performance linked bonuses without written consent of hotels and with exit clauses, early check in/ late checkout/ cancellation/ modification policies to be decided by the hotel and not the online portals, and payments to be made more transparent with all payments to be done within 48 hours of a booking being made and not at the time of check in.

“SHRA had earlier officially written to OTAs with concerns raised by local hotels and even held meeting with them, but there has been no official reply from Goibibo and MakeMyTrip apart from just verbal assurances,” said Lamta.

The SHRA president said other OTAs like travelguru.com, yatra.com have, however, have agreed to all the concerns raised, including reducing commission to 15 per cent on all hotel bookings.

“OTAs likebooking.com and agoda.com, airbnb.com etc. leave the commission to the discretion of the hotels, which are deemed fair unlike the business policies of Goibibo and MakeMyTrip,” she added.

The SHRA appealed to all hoteliers not to harass guests who have booked through Goibibo-MMT later than Wednesday. “The guests should be given accommodation in the hotels with the request to make payments directly to the hotel,” said the release.