Travel booking sites: 48-hour reply rule, then helpline 1915 and e-Jagriti

By Prakhar Shahi

Published

Flow chart: complain to the site's grievance officer, call helpline 1915, then file on e-Jagriti within 2 years

When a booking site cancels a hotel or flight and the refund stalls, the E-Commerce Rules 2020 set a 48-hour acknowledgement. The complaint route after that, what it costs, and the time limit to file.

Original report · Explained

Rules, limits and fees as checked on 28 October 2026.

When a travel booking site cancels a hotel or flight booking and the refund does not come, the first step is a complaint to the site's grievance officer, who must acknowledge it within 48 hours and resolve it within one month under the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules 2020, according to a Shikayat.co guide to the Rules (Shikayat.co, 2026). If that fails, the route as of 28 October 2026 runs through the National Consumer Helpline on 1915 and then a consumer complaint on e-Jagriti (formerly e-Daakhil).

Filing at the District Commission costs nothing when the claim is up to ₹5 lakh (Vikram Kushwaha, 2026). What we could not find, in any page we read, is a fixed deadline for the refund itself.

Travel booking sites must answer a complaint within 48 hours

Under the E-Commerce Rules 2020, a platform must have a grievance officer who acknowledges a complaint within 48 hours and resolves it within one month, the Shikayat.co guide says (Shikayat.co, 2026). Write to that officer first, with the booking ID and the cancellation message.

The one-month clock is for resolving the complaint. It is not a refund deadline, and the guides we read did not give one.

If the month passes without an answer, the next step is a phone call.

If the site does not fix it: call 1915

The next step is the National Consumer Helpline, on 1915, according to the Shikayat.co guide, the one source in which we found this route (Shikayat.co, 2026).

If the helpline does not settle it, the formal complaint goes online.

File on e-Jagriti, formerly e-Daakhil

E-Daakhil no longer runs as a separate portal: e-Jagriti absorbed it on 1 January 2025, along with the OCMS, CMS and Confonet systems (Wikipedia, 2026). E-Daakhil had launched on 7 September 2020.

E-Jagriti handles online and offline filing and fee payment under the Consumer Protection Act 2019, in all states and union territories (Vikram Kushwaha, 2026). Which commission hears the case depends on the claim's value:

That leaves two practical questions: the cost and the deadline.

No fee up to ₹5 lakh, and two years to file

Filing at the District Commission costs nothing when the value of the service and the compensation claimed is up to ₹5 lakh (Vikram Kushwaha, 2026). We could not confirm the fee slabs above ₹5 lakh from a page we opened, so we do not give them here.

A complaint must generally be filed within two years of when the cause of action arose. A commission can accept a late complaint if there is sufficient cause for the delay (Vikram Kushwaha, 2026).

What we don't know yet

Questions people are asking

Who do I complain to if a travel site cancels my hotel booking?

The site's grievance officer first. Under the E-Commerce Rules 2020 the officer must acknowledge within 48 hours and resolve within one month (Shikayat.co, 2026).

What if the travel site does not refund me?

Call the National Consumer Helpline on 1915, then file a consumer complaint on e-Jagriti, according to the Shikayat.co guide.

Does filing a consumer complaint cost money?

Nothing at the District Commission when the claim is up to ₹5 lakh (Vikram Kushwaha, 2026).

How long do I have to file a consumer complaint?

Generally two years from when the cause of action arose; a late complaint can be accepted for sufficient cause (Vikram Kushwaha, 2026).

Is e-Daakhil still working?

Not as a separate portal. It has been part of e-Jagriti since 1 January 2025 (Wikipedia, 2026).

References

How we did this

On 28 October 2026 we read the Shikayat.co guide to the E-Commerce Rules 2020 for the platform's duties and the complaint route, a consumer-complaint guide by Vikram Kushwaha for commission limits, fees and the time limit, and the Wikipedia entry on e-Jagriti for the portal's merger with e-Daakhil. We put the steps in the order a traveller would take them. We did not find a refund deadline in the pages we read, and we did not read the Gazette text of the Rules. The hero image is a flow chart we drew from these sources; upload it with the story.

This story was produced, reviewed, edited and verified by the reporter before publication, with AI assistance where required.

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