Hotel owners in Jaipur have levelled serious accusations against Oyo Rooms, an online hotel aggregator, claiming the company created fictitious hotel bookings. These fake transactions allegedly allowed Oyo to artificially boost its revenue figures. However, the fallout has been severe for the hotels involved, with many now burdened by hefty tax recovery demands, penalties, and interest charges amounting to several crores from the GST authorities. Struggling with this unexpected crisis, hotel operators are now left scrambling to deal with tax officials.

1. FIR Filed Against Oyo Founder Amid Growing Concerns

The situation escalated when one of the affected hotels filed a First Information Report (FIR) against Oyo's Founder, Ritesh Agarwal, at the Adarshnagar police station. Hussain Khan, President of the Hotel Federation of Rajasthan, expressed deep concern, labeling this scam a growing threat to the hospitality sector. Sandeep Gogia, the Federation’s convenor, added that over 100 hotels have already received GST notices linked to these suspicious transactions.

2. Jodhpur Hotels Also Caught in the Web

The issue isn’t confined to Jaipur alone. In Jodhpur, more than ten hotel operators have been slapped with tax notices by the State and Central GST departments over the past six months. Investigations reveal a pattern of fraud where hotel rooms were shown as booked and then immediately cancelled. Despite the cancellations, GST charges were applied, leaving hotel owners responsible for payments. Some hotels have been issued notices demanding nearly ₹1 crore.

3. Samskara Resort: Bookings Recorded Before It Even Existed

One of the most shocking revelations came from Madan Jain, director of Samskara Resort. He reported that Oyo reflected bookings worth ₹22.51 crore at their property, despite the fact that the resort wasn’t even operational in 2016, the year bookings were shown. As a result, the GST department has raised a demand of ₹2.66 crore against the resort.

4. Kartikeya Hotel: ₹44 Crore in Earnings Fabricated

Another hotelier, Nitin, who manages Kartikeya Hotel, shared a similar ordeal. According to him, the GST records indicate ₹44 crore in revenue for his hotel during the 2023–24 financial year. Consequently, he has received a recovery notice from tax authorities for around ₹4 crore.