Agoda
reviews and complaints

This is to update the complaint I posted on 1/13/12. (I couldn't figure out how to edit it, so I'm submitting this separate update.)
I was pleasantly surprised to suddenly get an email from Agoda's Customer Service after they saw my original complaint here.
My husband and I are now satisfied with how Agoda resolved our concerns. They have been very apologetic and assure us they will work to improve their customer service. (We did not need to further pursue help from Priceline, which owns Agoda.)
Time will tell if they succeed in working closely with their vendors to provide accurate descriptions (which is hard to do in Asia where reality is harder to define and nail down, especially in advertising), improve their billing practices, and stop blocking negative reviews from their customers. (I'm still waiting to see if I can revise my review of the dump we stayed in and see if it gets posted.)
Before I consider using Agoda again, I'll be online looking at complaint postings - in English and Chinese - to see how it's going.

dr's review of Agoda
Beware of Deceptive and Misleading Presentation of Booking Policies on Agoda's Website
1
Posted on Jan 20, 2012
jdr
Reviews: 1
Pros: Not Much
Cons: Unethical Business Practices and Shamefully Inadequate Response to Customer Complaint
Overall: I am a very frequent traveler, who has only used Agoda a handful of times. Booked a prepaid five night stay in a deluxe Hong Kong hotel recently for a trip later this year. As Agoda presented the room choices and rates on their site, the words 'FREE CANCELLATION' in bright green letters appears throughout the page, along with 'no need to worry if your plans change'. Needless to say I was a bit shocked to learn as I had to modify then cancel the trip that this purchase was completely non-refundable under any circumstances. As it turns out, only CERTAIN room types are in fact cancellable, ot all room types. I pointed this out to Agoda in a subsequent email dialogue and explained that 'a reasonable person' could easily interpret the presence of all of the ability to cancel language and complete absence of non-refundable language surrounding the rooms that are non-refundable is at a minimum deceptive and misleading, and arguably unethical.

After a handful of emails back and forth, they basically said 'tough luck, you are stuffed and should've read the fine print' more closely before purchase. They are correct, shame on me for not doing so. But bigger shame on Agoda for poor business practices and such an arrogant response to a customer concern. As a show of good faith, I even booked another room for a different trip while we were going back and forth to provide evidence that I am a potentially good customer, who travels 100-150 day per year. Sadly, this fell on deaf ears and I felt compelled to comment in a public forum to let the traveling public know about this. In the end, they lose because I won't use then for the $20, 000 per year or so I spend on hotels, and of course any lost business as a result of this posting.
Agoda is not recommended by jdr

I booked 6 nights at the Halolau Villa in Luang Prabang, Laos. Price was $120/night, very high for Laos (even Luang Prabang). I posted a negative review of the hotel, but it has not been posted on the Agoda site. You have to wonder if they just purge all negative reviews, which means you cannot make choices (as I did) based on reviews you see there. I wrote to Agoda in the second day of my stay because they had misrepresented the hotel in their online ad. I got NO RESPONSE AT ALL. The rooms (2) were absolutely BASIC, not even a mirror except for a tiny one in the bathroom; had to ASK for soap; had to ASK for a small desk. No TV in room (okay with me but unusual--no radio or anything else.) The rooms were basically just a bed and tiny night table. All would be okay in a budget hotel, but this was not budget. Ad said "kitchenette" but that was shared among all guests in the hotel, not indicated in the ad. To be fair, my other reservation with Agoda was no problem, so it's not as if you will get scammed every time. But I'd really think twice about Agoda. See their own link to potential partners advertising that they will get the highest commissions anywhere--60%! Well, who do you think is paying those commissions? YOU.

My husband and I booked an apartment in China via Agoda. The pics were obviously of the place in brand-new condition, and I know that things in China are not often what they appear to be (nearly 10 yrs of life there, speak some Cantonese and Mandarin). So I expected to do some cleaning and to endure some discomfort.
Since Agoda is a sister company of Priceline, I extended the trust I have in Priceline to Agoda. That turned out to be a very unhappy and tiring mistake.
The Agoda page says: To make each guest's stay comfortable, all rooms feature television LCD/plasma screen, television, shower, non smoking rooms. This excellent hotel in Guangzhou also has room service, coffee shop, shops, 24hr room service. After a day of work or exploring, massage, sauna, garden are some of the ways to unwind. Guests seeking that perfect blend of attentive care and modern convenience will find it at this lovely hotel. Book your room now at Grand-Day E Apartment via our secure online booking form. The first step is to enter and submit your travel dates in the spaces provided.
I booked in March. In October two fairly positive reviews posted on Agoda.
Then we checked in 11 December. When I saw the dirty, cluttered, smoke-filled apartment that serves as "the office" (and woke up the guy sleeping on a sleeper sofa next to the shabby little check-in desk), I knew we were screwed.
He spoke Mandarin with a heavy country accent and understood very little Cantonese, so I could barely communicate with him.
The first apt. he showed us wreaked of cig smoke, and it was horribly drab. No, show us a better one.
OK, the "better room" was only slightly better. It was a bit brighter, yet still had the smell of old cigarette smoke in it. And 2 ashtrays in the living room area. Odd for all non-smoking rooms to find ashtrays in them...and the smell of cig smoke.
The bed linens seemed to be the cleanest thing in the whole apt. Yet they had a faint cig smell that mellowed as the days went by.
The "clean" towels brought in every day were an experiment in bizarre scents. Hmmm...when I apply the towel to a wet, warm body what kind of fragrance will I get today? It was always cigarette smell (because "the office" is full of smoke) and some food scent - dried fish? dried mushroom? some other food cooked that night before?
The door does not lock on the inside. So I put a chair in front of it - when slid across the floor it made a loud noise.
We slept on box springs. No mattress on top, just the hard box with the ultra firm springs inside. No way to sleep a solid night's sleep because one hip hurts after a couple hours, so you have to turn back and forth a few times every night.
The AC unit only blows cold air.
Both AC units on high air speed could not drown the soul-piercing street traffic noise coming through the windows. The sealant around where the windows close was pertrified into rock, so we might as well have left the windows open. I slept with ear plugs and could still hear engines and brakes and horns.
There is no pool, no sauna, no room service. The office hours are posted as 1-7 PM. But then if you are fluent in Mandarin, you can't communicate with the staff. No coffee shop. No non-smoking apts.
The wallpaper is peeling. Mold has consumed the wall paper near the AC units. There is obviously no maintenance done. Only the washing machine and microwave worked properly. Only two glass cups and a water boiler were provided in the kitchenette (two burners, sink, dish sanitizer).
All remote controls are in Chinese, so I was able to figure them out. No phone provided.
Wi-fi only if you beg for it.
I contacted Agoda via email to say "this is not what you advertised. we want out! help!" i sent these via email addresses I found on Agoda; they all bounced back. The email send internally through the "help" section seemed to have gone through.
it was days before i got one email. i replied to the email asking for photos. Those emails bounced back. I sent a very short email asking Jaebom to call me in Hong Kong at the other hotel we booked through Agoda. No bounce back...and no further replies.
We were on our own.
I'm now working to contact a human being at Priceline in America to complain and get resolution.
We left the dumpy apartment on Christmas Day.
My husband woke up that morning and could barely get out of bed due to his back suddenly hurting so severely. I took a few hours after pain meds so he could get downstairs and into a taxi to go to another hotel we did not use Agoda to book. The next day I took him to a local hospital to see a doc, get meds and massage therapy.
If you have zero issues booking with Agoda, it seems you'll be fine. If you have problems, you are on your own. Do not expect empathetic, helpful customer service.
Agoda needs to significantly approve their service and make sure they are advertising truthfully data.
I will never use Agoda again. I strongly discourage anyone to use them.

I booked 6 nights stay in bali, indonesia through agoda. and now they processed this payment thru their london office and my credit card company has charged me usd120 more to book via agoda.

It says on their website that agoda is a part of priceline and they have their stock listed on nyse.
Then why should I get charged for foreign transaction?

I think it would have been better if I booked my stay thru hotels.com, or expedia.com.

Not going to use agoda anymore.

I've very bad experience at Phuket at home residence hotel and this hotel was booked via Agoda. After the trip, I wrote bad comments on this hotel but Agoda boarded my review! I asked them several times but they ignored me at all. My booking no. is 7858266 & 7858238 II don’t understand why Agoda boarded my review of this bad hotel, I felt very disappointed of them.  Actually they only disclose the good comment and ignore the bad one!

I had 2 times bad experiences with booking ViA Agoda. 1st was booking for Phuket Hotel. We want to go for a relax vacation so we choose the hotel with the swimming pool because of our kid. But once we arrived "swimming pool was under renovation" without any notice at all by Agoda. I called them up they take no responsibility at all. Our bad luck!
2nd time recently at Christmas time 24-26 Dec 2011. I have made mistake by making double booking under the same name. I called the hotel to make sure that I will have only one booking before we check in., which confirmed by the hotel. Then I sent email to Agoda to cancel one and keep only one booking I have got only automatic answering email but never ever again any follow up from Agoda. So they charged me twice for the same name booking. "How can one family stay in 2 room at the same time?" They charged my credit card.
My unfortunate again, I did not realize the the hotel I booked from Agoda list would be so terrible. I don't want to blame the hotel the staff were good and try to help us. Because when we check in we found that the hotel is very small and dusty with the carpet. Then my son and my husband got sudden allergy to the dust and get rash. I called up immediately Agoda call center in Singapore from Thailand to ask them to help at lease cancel one day booking for us. We are OK to pay for one night but we will not stay at the hotel due to the sickness of my family. The agent from Singapore took the request and said they will contact the hotel if it's ok by the hotel then they will proceed for me and will call me back in 15 minuets. I waited and wasted my time, the hotel said they have no problem they understood that my son is getting sick. But Agoda, never return my call. So I was double cheating by Agoda, first double charge me. And have no consideration for the sickness of the clients at all.. I swear will never ever get in contact with Agoda again.. for life..

Agoda.com operates a highly deceptive "rewards points"program. It is designed so you can never use them, because at the end of each year they zero balance your account. In order to reach the mandatory threshold to have enough points to "cash in" for a booking would require that you literally book almost every week of a 52 wk year, or exclusively 4 & 5 star hotels.
I had earned 11787 points and lost all of them, despite having book almost 15 bookings with them in Thai, Malaysia and other countries over the course of the year. Don't use Agoda.com ever expecting to earn points.

On our recent Christmas Holiday trip to Cebu, Philippines, we had a horrible hotel experience with absolutely no help from Agoda. On the Agoda website we discovered the (deceptively marketed) Grand Regency Hotel and Towers in Cebu City. There is no mention anywhere that this facility is NOT affiliated with the Regency Hotel Group or Hyatt Regency. It is another cheap Philippine “knock-off” – fraud – which is so common in that country. Yet, Agoda does not intervene or provide warning. The following recaps our experience:

After booking with Agoda, I immediately discovered that we were being charged $36. USD per night extra for our 11 year old daughter, even though the hotel’s policy was children under 12 stay for free. After arguing back & forth via email, Agoda finally conceded and credited my Visa Card the overcharged amount. Secondly, I found that Asiatravel.com offered a rate totaling $189. USD less than Agoda. When challenged under their “price guarantee” program, Agoda cited “ever-so-slightly” different verbiage in their policies. It was insulting, Agoda has no “price guarantee”, it is just a scam. It was however my error for not shopping (in depth) the competition ahead of time. Agoda: never again, they are deceitful.

After driving for 12 hours, we arrived at the Regency Hotel & Towers. It was immediately obvious that we had been scammed: all around poor quality, banking on the name “Regency Hotel” to draw unsuspecting customers. We arrived at the check-in counter shortly after 7pm on December 27. The staff seemed confused with the Agoda booking. They were unable to find our reservation. It took over an hour for them to provide us a room. Throughout the check-in process the defective overhead “air con” rained water down on us and the paperwork. Never a mention of it, or word of apology from the staff for the “rain” or lengthy wait. Check-in staff said that there was one, not two queen beds as advertised, but they would have a bed brought in for our daughter. There was no valet parking, and the parking garage was full. We had to wait in our car, in the garage for over 15 minutes until attendants “found” a space.

We finally got into our “Corner Room Suite” at 8:30 pm and found no extra bed. At 10:30, and after 3 phone calls to the front desk, still no bed. The front desk did not answer the phone on our 3rd call to them for over 5 minutes. We just put it on speakerphone and let it ring. At 10:40, housekeeping delivered a cheap foam pad and placed it on the floor calling it “a bed”. At 11:00 the IT staff telephoned, wanting to come up and manually connect my laptop to the hotel’s LAN since they offered no wireless connection. This connection procedure would remove the ISP configuration we use at home. We were already in bed trying to sleep when this call came in. At this point we called the front desk, told them we were very displeased and requested a meeting with the hotel manager in the early morning.

The “Corner Room Suite” was NOT a corner room, although it was slightly larger than a “Superior”. There was one wall of windows and a 3 foot glass panel on the adjacent wall – behind which is an elevator shaft (hardly a corner). However, the room assigned was below the surrounding infrastructure and all you see are industrial plant rooms in the adjacent building. You cannot see outside of the complex whatsoever . . . what then may I ask, is the purpose of a “corner suite” if not for the panoramic view of the city that it supposedly affords?

The hotel restaurants only serve “buffet style” dining, no sit down dinner available for my Wife’s birthday! We ordered Cadillac Margaritas. However, this “upscale facility” does not stock Gran Marnier. We also tried to order a simple warm Drambuie for after dinner. . . they didn’t have a clue. No Kahlua for the coffee in the morning, no Mimosa for breakfast either! The “Café” which isn’t a buffet style is simply a “snack bar” offering nothing more than fish & chips and sandwiches. There are only 2 elevators for over 40 floors and the wait time is horrendous as the car is full when the doors open & you have to wait again, and again! The elevators offered no access to our 9th floor accommodations due to an architectural design flaw in the remodeling of the building. We had to get off on the 10th floor and take the stairs back down to the 9th floor to get to our room. This “Special Birthday” for my wife was turning into a disaster!

The following morning, December 28th, we were out of the room with luggage in our car well before 7:30 a.m. After a considerable wait, we spoke with the hotel manager at 9:00 a.m. He instructed us NOT to check out until they contacted Agoda. At 11:00, he informed me that they had made several attempts to contact Agoda, but were unable to do so. He specifically stated that: “Agoda is extremely difficult to contact”. At that point, he instructed me to contact Agoda via email and to enter URGENT in the subject line. I composed a detailed email and mailed it off to Agoda shortly after 11:00. Agoda failed to respond until after 1pm. Later, Agoda attempted to blame me for the delay! The one night that we did stay there was because at 10:30 at night it is difficult to book elsewhere! Agoda claims 24/7 service. However, I emailed Agoda 3 times after their 1pm response, asking for help in booking elsewhere. I received no reply until 24 hours later and was forced to make other arrangements myself. As a result of Agoda’s misrepresentation and incompetence, my family spent most of the first day of our vacation in the “low end” quality lobby of the “Grand Regency” . . . on my wife’s birthday. Agoda has since refused to refund our payment. We instructed our Visa Card company to cancel payment.

We should be demanding compensation from Agoda in addition to a full refund!

I made a booking through Agoda.com on December 7 2011, but due to some changes in plans, I decided to cancel my booking. Before I made the cancellation, I made sure that I would not charged a cancellation fee. There was a "free cancellation" offer on the hotel booking page and I read their FAQ, and under the heading "How do I calculate the correct cancellation date" this is what stated:
"Cancellation due dates are based upon normal local check in time. "

The hotel, Hotel Sixty3, states that their check-in time is 12.00 pm. I cancelled more than 24 hours before my arrival. Satisfied that I was within the safe period for cancellation I proceeded to do so. But when I contacted Agoda to verify that I would not be charged the cancellation fee, they told me that they have been done just that! And their reply only came 2 DAYS after I had sent the email requesting for verification. I sent them another email requesting clarification on the charges since it is clearly stated on their website that cancellation due dates are based as above. I also requested that they refunded my money. This was done on December 14 2011. As of today (December 19), I have yet to receive any reply to the email. So much for stating that they'll reply within 24 hours.

As it is, I am deeply frustrated and disappointed at the really lousy service that Agoda is providing to their customers. I've booked with other online hotel booking websites before (asiarooms, atsiam) and did not encounter any difficulties. Agoda, for all its supposed credentials, is truly sub-par. I hope that I will be able to get a refund. If not, I will have to think of other means to get it.

I requested a booking at the Golden Banana B&B hotel in Siemriep, Cambodia but I was booked at the nearby Golden Banana Resort and Boutique Hotel at twice the cost. It seems that there are two hotels near to each other both called 'Golden Banana' but with different managements – very confusing.
My visa account was debited for a stay of 20 days at the more expensive GB Resort and boutique hotelbut I never received an email confirmation for this. On the Agoda web site they ask for a password which I do not have and they do not send me a password confirmation.
I do not seem to be able to contact Agoda and they do not seem to have an email address.
Ian Glover

I have been trying to change a reservation I made through Agoda at the Swengland resort with booking number 9346631 from November 29 to December 4 (date of current booking) to December 13th to December18th. I have emailed Agoda twice and haven't had so much as a reply.
Could someone please contact me and let me know if this change is possible?
Rick Lawrence

I booked 12 nights hotel rooms stayed at the Skyline Plaza Hotel Guangzhou through Agoda. Agoda website stated that guests can change their booking at anytime, and guests only need to pay one room night worth of penalty if decided to change booking. That turns out not true. After I paid Agoda for the 12 room nights, I asked if I could shorten my stay at the hotel.
They told me that it was the hotel policy that I have to stay for the 12 nights. They will not refund any money back to me even if I shorten my stay at the hotel. Agoda lies, lies, lies at their website. Bad business practice! I talked to them five times over the phone about the situation. They offered absolutely no help. Beware of Agoda. They are cheaters!

I booked a hotel for 5 nights in Bangkok Sukhumvit Soi 3 based on the Agoda reviews (member reviews of the hotels). The hotel has been rated 7.5 out of 10 at Agoda.com but when we reached there, it was not even worth a rating of 6. The rooms were very small and the two ladies at the reception were very moody and never talks, even when we asked something directly to them.

After Day 1, I called up Agoda.com and asked them to change my hotel to something better and they told me that it was not possible. That is what they say after taking all the money for 5 days! The customer care there is just pathetic and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone for hotel booking.

I was forced to stay there for 5 days and it was worst. I have already posted a review of the hotel on the Agoda website based on my experience but I would like everyone to know that the reviews given on the Agoda website are misleading and should not be trusted blindly.

I always book through Agoda.com since 2006 for all my trips. I am very much aware of their cxl policy and always be careful before I enter my credit card number. When I make late cxl sometime, I got charged and as t was my late cxl, I always agreed to pay, no problem. This time, I am taking my family for health check up trip to BKK and I am very careful about the comfort of them so I booked again with Agoda as I always trusted their website. I booed 2 Twin rooms for 5 nights then I re do 2nd booking for 1 single room for 1 night but the computer fill up another 2 Twin rooms for 5 nights instead of 1 single room for 1 night only. As soon as I got their confirmation, I contacted them and explain about it but no reply until the next day which is my check in day to hotel. Just 1 hour before my check in, i got an email from Ms. Viola from Agoda asking me that is it correct that I want to keep 2 Twin rooms for 5 nights and amend 2 other twin rooms for 5 nights to 1 Single room for 1 night so i was so happy that they understood and I replied them saying that it is correct and thanks them. Then I check in 2 twin rooms for 5 nights and 1 single room for 1 night and everything is fine. Next morning I check out one Single room for my uncle who is staying only one night. Then found out 2 days after check out that I had book that single room for 5 nights which is absolutely no true. Then few hours later, I got a voucher of 1 single room for 5 nights from Agoda (2 days after the Single room is check out) and they charged my credit card. I send several emails to Agoda customer service and they kept sending me 3 days before cxl policy like I am stupid and didn't read before I booked! Finally they said on one email that it was the hotel who confirm them that I said to hotel I will going to take single room for 5 nights, which is absolutely not true! No hotel can inform to them directly and they should not send me 2 days after check out a voucher. they have no right to do that so I am VERY disappointed I will never ever going to use their service in future. I am also hotelier since 1993 and I am managing director of 2 hotels in my country. I will never put my hotels on their website as I really don't want my clients to be treatment they way they do. I am so use to check all reservation for my clients that I cannot believe that such a big name on line booking web site can do such a irresponsible thing. So I had decided to fight not for money but not to let them treat to their royal clients this way in future again. I don't care they don't refund me but they should have a minimum attention to their clients and not just copy and paste to all their reply email in a very stupid and unprofessional way!

Last week I try to use Agoda to book for my hotel in Thailand. I book two rooms. One suite and one deluxe. but later i found out the system has replaced my reservation to two deluxe room and one is about 1800+ another one is 3400+. not only the room’s type is wrong the date is also wrong. Because i book the hotel in last minute. And so they refuse to any kind of refund because of their 3 days policy, and they claim they follow the confirmation letter.
Try to explain to them about their system failure with their confirmation letter(which had happened before). Seemed like as long as the system failure is helping them to cheat money, they really don’t care much.

I made a hotel booking #8448715 with Agoda on 8/7/2011 which I cancelled on the same date. Original booking is as detailed below:
Booking ID 8448715
Cancelled on : 8th July 2011
Customer Name: Solomoni Nata
Hotel: BreakFree on George Hotel
Total Room Charge: USD$1, 022.86
Room Type: Studio apartment
Number of Adults: 1
Complaint:
Eventhough the booking had been cancelled, Agoda went ahead to deduct the amount of USD$1, 022.86 from Solomoni Nata's Credit Card. This transaction on his Visa Card Statement was dated 11/7/2011.
I request that the amount of USD$1, 022.86 is refunded by Agoda as soon as possible to Solomoni Nata's credit card, since the room booking was cancelled.

My booking id : 7805983 booked for city : mumbai, country : india,
Arrival : may 16, 2011, departure : may 17, 2011
First hotel choice : hotel ibis mumbai airport
We booked standard 1 double bed we were charged for the same on our credit card, by mistake we clicked to link of cancellation, and we were just keen to read cancellation policy, when we checked in, hotel staff said that your hotel reservation are cancelled, and the amount you paid, is paid to agoda, we cannot provide you the rooms on that booking, we mailed and even called them to check what exactly was the system, they didnot helped us
We lost $125, and harrasment,, no refund was given nor any room
These people cheat on you on name of system cancellation