New Delhi: Executives at Oyo have submitted “invalid” no-objection certificates from about 70 hotels to online travel agency (OTA) Booking.com last week, to change the ownership listing of the properties to the SoftBank-backed chain from rival Treebo , people familiar with the matter, including several hotel owners, have alleged. Brands like Oyo and Treebo list their properties on other platforms like Booking.com, besides their own apps and websites. OTAs have to be given NOCs from property owners to list any ownership changes.Hotel owners ET spoke to said they received queries from Treebo on the matter. Treebo also shared Booking.com's clarifications subsequently with them, they said.As per its email to Treebo, which ET has seen, Booking.com said after making necessary checks it had identified that the NOCs provided by Oyo on these properties were “invalid”. In its email, Booking.com also stated it had escalated the matter to Oyo's leadership team.Most of the properties on the list were formerly with Oyo.Oyo didn’t respond to an email from ET seeking comment till press time Monday.Booking.com did not specifically respond to ET’s queries, but said it required its accommodation partners to abide by all the applicable laws and compliances. "There is a standard process that we follow at Booking.com for listing properties and the same process is being followed right now as well," the Amsterdam-headquartered company stated.A Treebo spokesperson did not name Oyo but said one of its competitors had used fake documents recently to try to wrongfully take control of the OTA listings of several of its partner properties. "As a standard procedure in case of all such takeovers, Booking.com intimated us. When we checked with our partners, all of them vehemently denied providing any such documents or agreeing to join this competitor,” the spokesperson said. “So, this was clearly a fraud act directed at taking advantage of the relative inactivity of hotel owners due to Covid-19."Viekram Soni, who owns hotel One Lovelock in Kolkata, said he had not given any NOC to Oyo, but his property was on the list the company had given to Booking.com. “The NOC is fake. I was previously with Oyo and they owe me over Rs 12 lakh. The agreement with Oyo was for 14% commission and they went on to deduct 29% without informing me,” he said. “When Oyo did not settle my accounts, I moved to Treebo.”Syed Mohammad, who owns hotel Qasr in Kochi, said a fake NOC for his property was sent to the OTA. "They (Oyo) also sent me messages saying Treebo is going to wind up and that I should join them. I said I never got a notice from Treebo. Unless they notify me via email or through formal written communication, I will not believe that," he added.Raju Varghese who owns hotel Daisy Residency in Mumbai said he had received clarifications from Treebo and Booking.com's response to the company on the matter.The invalid NOC had also been submitted for Javed Waikar, who owns Hotel Garden Cottage and Lawn in Mahabaleshwar.An industry expert who was aware of the development said the competitive OTA market had seen hotel owners frequently changing platforms for better commissions and higher footfalls, and that sometimes there were misunderstandings on “technicalities”, not necessarily “mala fide intentions”.The Treebo spokesperson said the company was “appalled to see such unethical practices being followed by some players, that too in crisis times like these. Treebo is a strong, sustainable, and ethical company, and we are here for the long run”.The spokesperson said it had requested Booking.com to tighten the scrutiny on such requests and also advised its partners to be vigilant and report any such developments immediately.