I booked a 30 night stay at Giant house in Pai through Agoda , when I arrived they had no record of my booking and had received no payment either. They let me stay without further payment which made feel as if I had something wrong. They said that they had never ever received a payment or a notification of a booking or other communication from Agoda ever and when a traveller arrived they let them stay like myself without receiving any payment or if they had no spare rooms they sent them away. They said this had gone on for 12 years. The guesthouse is run by an elderly woman with no internet skills whatsoever. In the time that I stayed at the guesthouse I saw two young people arrive with bookings , one for 30 nights who was allowed to stay , without making a payment to the guesthouse , the second person was turned away which confirms everything that they said to me.

 I had great difficulty initially finding a way of complaining to Agoda , their website has a great emphasis on communication between customers and hotels but not on talking to Agoda directly. I eventually found an email for Agoda and made a complaint and to their credit they reimbursed me quite quickly. The website now shows the guesthouse as fully booked which it is not , which stops people booking on it at least. Amazingly no one ever left a bad review for this guesthouse ever, there were no reviews at all. I wonder where all those payments went over all those years , if there was a fraud somewhere and why the guesthouse was not more direct in tackling the problem , they would not contact Agoda even when I gave them an email address. When Agoda reimbursed me I passed the money on to the guesthouse , to which they said it was the first money they had ever received from Agoda.

 I wondered if anyone had had a similar experience.

I am generally slow to assume that a post is a wind-up, but this is a truly extraordinary story.

Good story, i was hoping the happy ending was the op contacted agodo and managed to get all the past payments transferred to the old lady. Continue following up, don't give up.

 

Hopefully it doesn't turn out that a shady relative is receiving payments instead

So the lady had guests coming from Agoda for 12 years without complaining she wasn't being paid !

 

I agree about Agoda though, it's very difficult to communicate with them. Their webside has no contact options, except a computerised set up which just gives standards replies.

020164106 you have to listen to Thai language a bit until they tell you to click for English

never book a room through Agoda .....

10 hours ago, Zyte said:

found an email for Agoda and made a complaint and to their credit they reimbursed me quite quickly

how about emailing them again and ask what the hell has been going on for the past 12 yrs,  ask them where has the payments gone.   

 

 

 

"I eventually found an email for Agoda" 

 

Could you please share that email. 

I have never used Agoda, always I have made my bookings through Booking.com.

All this time (more than 60 different bookings in many countries) I just got two problems and they were so professionals solving them... with a direct communication with Booking.com website.

 

10 years booking with Agoda and never had any problem, but if I use my account, the price is quite different if the app is used by Thai wife’s account.. double standard ? ????

 

5 minutes ago, Spooky1968 said:

I have never used Agoda, always I have made my bookings through Booking.com.

All this time (more than 60 different bookings in many countries) I just got two problems and they were so professionals solving them... with a direct communication with Booking.com website.

 

Both Agoda.com and Booking.com are owned by the same company.

We always deal direct with hotels here. GF does the deal. We send a deposit if required by Bank transfer.

7 hours ago, Spooky1968 said:

I have never used Agoda, always I have made my bookings through Booking.com.

All this time (more than 60 different bookings in many countries) I just got two problems and they were so professionals solving them... with a direct communication with Booking.com website.

 

Agoda and Booking.com (and many others) are both owned by Booking Holdings

7 hours ago, steven100 said:

never book a room through Agoda .....

I have been  using them for nearly 15 problem free years....

2 hours ago, Henryford said:

So the lady had guests coming from Agoda for 12 years without complaining she wasn't being paid !

 

I agree about Agoda though, it's very difficult to communicate with them. Their webside has no contact options, except a computerised set up which just gives standards replies.

AGODA has a bkk phone number !!!!

2 minutes ago, petermik said:

I have been  using them for nearly 15 problem free years....

same for me.......

Why would she let them stay without getting payment while presumably continuing to pay a fee to list on the site. Yet Agoda did give you a refund. Strange story. 

I like hotels.com because they price match cheaper sites and you get a book ten nights and get one free deal. They have a decent call centre too.

I have noticed though in the last few years Agoda is consistently cheapest of the main sites. I did have one issue with Agoda and sent an email and got a fair prompt reply. 

1 hour ago, steven100 said:

never book a room through Agoda .....

I always avoided them because of the small print which was adding 17% on to the price I expected to pay, but that was years ago, maybe things have changed now.

5 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

I always avoided them because of the small print which was adding 17% on to the price I expected to pay, but that was years ago, maybe things have changed now.

No it hasn't. It's a nuisance because you never know the full price until you are ready to book. At least Booking.com shows the real price.

2 minutes ago, Henryford said:

No it hasn't. It's a nuisance because you never know the full price until you are ready to book. At least Booking.com shows the real price.

True, I have always used Booking.com.

The Agoda site has an API that links to the the hotel directly to check price and availability as part of the booking process.  So you can't book a hotel that is not on Agoda.

 

So the OP either booked another hotel by mistake, and went to the wrong hotel, or someone has set up a 'ghost hotel' in the system, or it's just a story to illicit a response posted by a lonely soul who wants to chat with strangers on-line.

 

Without a link to the hotel, my money is on the latter.

1 hour ago, Tarteso said:

10 years booking with Agoda and never had any problem, but if I use my account, the price is quite different if the app is used by Thai wife’s account.. double standard ? ????

 

Same here, and haven't had any problem with them in all that time.

 

There are several VIP statuses on Agoda, so maybe it's not about double standard but just that she has booked more times than you, or that property charges differently for western breakfast than for Thai breakfast (seen that before, though not on booking through Agoda).

 

I use Agoda all the time.  I think I know whats going on.  Also, to someone who suggested using Booking.com, realize the are the same company.  There is also a setting on Agoda to show all fees + taxes.

 

Many of the Agoda hotels are Pay-When-You-Stay. My guess is the OP did not book a pre-paid reservation.

 

When you arrive, the hotel is supposed to tell Agoda that you stayed, and at some point, the hotel has to pay Agoda their commission.  If the hotel does not reply to whether the guest stayed or not, then Agoda would not charge anyone.  As for how the hotel can keep doing this, this hotel has apparently squeaked thru the cracks.  

 

I've had one or two of these "no credit card required" bookings that I made on the wrong day, or I just plain missed, or left early, and there's never been a charge from Agoda.  

 

Probably since you complained, they might not be listed anymore.  

 

Also, if folks don't mind jumping through a few hoops, if you use Topcashback.com, you can get 6% back on your Agoda and Booking reservations, but you have to use a browser to get it.  You can't use the app.  

The email for Agoda complaints is [email protected] which is Singapore based and fairly quick to respond. 
I have had no other problems with Agoda and will probably continue to use them. I have not been put off by this.

It is a good question who is more at fault the guesthouse or Agoda. I gave the guesthouse the above email address and they did not attempt to contact Agoda so I assume that there is something they have not told me. They talked about enquiries into family members that once handled internet things and have since moved on and seemed satisfied that they were not behaving fraudulently. They talked of a Chiang Mai based company that they thought to blame but without giving details or how or why a third company would have been involved.

 I think non confrontational characteristics taken to an extreme are part of the problem.

 I am surprised that nobody ever left a review on the website at all until I did , and my review is still there so it does work. I personally met three people who booked the guesthouse through Agoda in December , two of which were allowed to stay without further payment and one a rather young Thai girl was turned away on new years eve. She was upset and so would I have been at that age.

The guesthouse are genuinely upset about it as well , “book on the internet sleep on the internet “ said one of them despairingly. They seem to feel unable to do anything and then allow short term solutions to run for a long time. The guesthouse has a rundown look following the lockdown with few huts available.
I cannot say where the fault is or the blame , I wonder if Agoda have a body of money they have never forwarded , or if someone has made a very successful long term fraud out of it , but there is no obvious candidate for those suspicions.

For me at least it has been an interesting experience.

 

Thank you for the email address, Zyte.

On 1/16/2022 at 3:18 AM, Henryford said:

No it hasn't. It's a nuisance because you never know the full price until you are ready to book. At least Booking.com shows the real price.

You can see the full price from the start by selecting "Total price per night" in this box, accessed by clicking on your selected currency from the home page.

 

On 1/16/2022 at 2:14 AM, Spooky1968 said:

I have never used Agoda, always I have made my bookings through Booking.com.

All this time (more than 60 different bookings in many countries) I just got two problems and they were so professionals solving them... with a direct communication with Booking.com website.

 

Same company, different name.

Something like that happened to me in Sydney three years ago. The hotel had changed owners and name before or around the time I booked. When I arrived there, the owner had no booking received, as he claimed he 'did not work with Agoda'. The hotel refused a refund. - It took me a long time and a huge effort to get my money back. Also the hotel, with its old name was listed on Agoda long after that, even though the owner had claimed 'no business with Agoda'...