Agoda review: Booking with deceptive practice and terrible customer service

REVIEW OF THE HYATT WILD OAK RANCH AND AGODA THIRD PARTY BOOKING SITE:

While staying at the Hyatt resort Wild Oak Ranch in San Antonio my sister had an incredible 4-day getaway! The staff went above and beyond to be accommodating and helpful. We ended up extending our stay, and as such, needed to change rooms. They allowed us to leave our luggage in the room, and had their staff transfer everything. They also did it in record time. The bartender / waitress, who hails from Mexico, was one of the sweetest people we've ever encountered. I could not say enough about the Hyatt Wild Oak Ranch in San Antonio Texas. We stayed at their sister facility, the Hyatt Hill Country resort a few years ago, and it would be fair to say that they were very similar, although the Wild Oak Ranch was on a smaller, but more “personal” scale. Both facilities are incredible! Highly Recommend!

The only downside of our trip was booking with Agoda. I had booked the initial reservations from Boston, and apparently, we were on my husband's google website. As such, agoda put my husband's name as lead guest and repeatedly told us they would not allow us to check in, unless my husband, whom was in Boston, was present at check-in in San Antonio Texas, even after agoda acknowledged that the credit card’s used to book the reservations were in my, and my sisters name, respectively. We piggybacked off the initial reservation and booked two more days under my sister's credit card. Again, they were very unaccommodating, and blamed us for booking incorrectly. Agoda's customer service was horrible, even after we complied with writing emails to the company explaining our situation. Their response was that they were sorry, it is the policy, and without my husband's ID we were unable to check into the hotel and would forfeit four prepaid days of reservations at the resort!

It was one mere phone call to the resort’s front desk. I had the pressure to speak with Vivian, and again explained our situation, and agodas response. She indicated that my husband just had to call and they would switch everything over. The staff at the Hyatt was phenomenal, and so was the concierge and I may mention the chocolates they gave us, Priceless!

Agoda customer service really put a damper on what could and should have been a wonderful, stress-free mini vacation between sisters! They had no compassion, or understanding of situations unforeseeable, and clearly, we had no idea, as this was the first time we used their company, as well as the last! They told us it was too bad we would be unable to stay at the resort which was completely paid for in advance. I would never ever book another reservation with this company. Their clear lack of human response or lack of follow-up when they promised to rectify the situation after we had sent numerous emails, at their direction, to the specific email address that they advised us..., well it was OUTRAGOUS AND INCOMPREHENDABLE! After complying with all of their e-mail requests, as told to us do to change the LEAD name on the reservation… I have attached their actual response! Basically, their email back to us was that only the lead name on the initial reservation would be able to check into the resort, and there was nothing they “Agoda” could do to assist us. The ONLY option we had to stay at the resort, with prepaid reservations, was basically to have my husband fly in from Boston and check-in to the resort with his ID. This was all told to us when they could clearly see that it was my sister and my credit card that paid for the reservations in full.

I can only assume it was their intent to re-rent rooms that we had already paid for and that agodo received their compensation for. I have traveled for business and personal reasons my entire life, and have used many third-party booking sites... I HAVE NEVER HAD SUCH A POOR EXPERIENCE WITH ANY ENTITY LIKE AGODA AND WOULD LIKE THIS TO BE A WORD OF WARNING! THE COMPANY IS TERRIBLE, THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE EMPLOYEES WERE IGORANT TO THE HOTELS POLICY, AND UNCARING OF OUR SITUATION! ALL OF WHICH WAS AN HONEST SILLY ERROR IN BOOKING ON A GOOGLE SITE ASSOCIATED WITH MY HUSBAND. WE NEVER REFERENCED HIS NAME ON ANY RESERVATION! This entire situation caused much worry and duress, all due to agoda. Their website, as attached/noted below, shows that you can change a LEAD NAME! IT does NOT allow you to… IT WAS A TERRIBLE AND SAD EXPERIENCE DEALING WITH RUTHLESS, disrespectful and uncaring PEOPLE with no common sense or empathy! I have attached redacted and actual documents from myself, as well as the response from agoda, and a picture of the OPTION from their actual website, where travelers have the ability to change the parties LEAD NAME ON THE RESERVATION! IT WAS/ IS NOT AN OPTION!

My sincere hope in writing this, in such detail, is that no one ever has to deal with such poor quality customer service, if you can even call it that, and so many issues, headaches, worries, lies, (I could go on forever…) on their next VACATION!

I hope this helps all going forward.

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