Avoid AGODA

[Angus55]

When booking airline tickets its worth paying a little more to AVOID AGODA. If your flight has no problem you may be ok but if your flight time is changed ,delayed or any other problem ,Agoda will not refund your money. So do yourself a favor and be warned.

[Tropicalevo]

I did not know that they booked flights.

I only use them for hotels.

For flights, I try to book with the airline.

No one else will help you if anything goes wrong.

[soi3eddie]

After Covid and the flight refund debacle, anyone who books flights other than direct with the airline by credit card must be mad. 

 

[GypsyT]

I agree - Agoda no good.

 

I lost $ 6.00 "cash back" because I didn't want to keep my CC on their file " for future reservations".

Same with their App, they push it hard. I don't use it.

 

Now, $ 6 is nothing but I got p... off the way they lie. They send me a letter; " Our CASH BACK is a gift". No obligation to pay.... After reading fine print it is there too!

What a joke company - part of Booking,com.

They sell same hotels under two different names in Vietnam. They make it to look like there's competition. That happened 2 times to me.

 

I also had bad experience with Traveloka,com. A few days after booking and paying by the CC I got 5 same day charges totaling $ 791.00. All in the US, Texas and Kentucky, while I was in Vietnam.

My bank's investigator at Chase told me "There's a ring in Asia who sell CC info to US crooks who use the card. Chase deleted all charges.

 

I try always use cash but sometimes can't, like future hotels. I am very selective where I use my cards but sh..t happens.

 

Sample how they operate;

 

13. Re: Agoda cashback rewards

Mar 26, 2024, 6:58 PM

 

It's basically a scam. When you go and try and redeem your cashback rewards, it will give you an error saying "oops there is a problem, come back in 24 hours". Which never goes away. Finally you go and check the terms and conditions, and discover it's actually a scam:

 

5. Please note that the cashback reward, being a gift from Agoda to you as a valued User, is at and shall remain at all times in Agoda’s sole and absolute discretion. You understand and accept that Agoda will not at any time incur any obligation to you in respect of the cashback reward, and you will not have any claim against Agoda in respect of the cashback reward."

 

Edited June 25 by GypsyT

[Alldar]

I have very good experience with flights booking through Agoda. I've booked an airline ticket with Agoda and the flight was later rescheduled by the airline to very late flight during the night, which wasn't suitable for me. If I had booked the flight with the airlines directly there would be no compensation possible, only changing the flight for a hefty fee. I contacted Agoda support and they contacted airlines and I got a different ticket with even better time than my originally booked ticket. All completely free.

 

So from my side excellent support from Agoda side which wouldn't be possible if I had booked directly with the airlines.

[KhunBENQ]

45 minutes ago, GypsyT said:

I lost $ 6.00 "cash back"

Big fat deception.

Recently learned.

Best price for room 9xx Baht.

Then continue: you have to pay 11xx Baht, get cashback.

Fine print: apply for cashback, need a credit card, may take a month, for less than 10 USD there is 1 USD fee.

No thanks!

 

[GypsyT]

5 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

Fine print: apply for cashback, need a credit card, may take a month,

My wait was 120 days... It's still the same, according the website.

 

They do that way so you don't realize quickly they cheat you and they hope you continue doing reservations.

 

[Yellowtail]

I booked a hotel today, the cheapest I could find was just booking the hotel website. There was one booking site that was the same price, but the rest were higher, 

[jaywalker2]

I booked a hotel on Agoda that clearly stated that breakfast was included. When I got to the hotel, they told me no breakfast . I showed them the Agoda confirmation and they told me that they never use Agoda due to problems in the past and always use Booking.com. In fact, I had made the booking over Agoda but the hotel had received the booking from Booking.com.  I told them it was basically the same company but they insisted that Agoda always makes mistakes.

 

As it turned out, the breakfast was terrible so I didn't really care but I still had to wonder who was at fault.

[georgegeorgia]

I'm still chasing up my cashback !

Trying to talk to this chat bot 

[NanLaew]

7 hours ago, jaywalker2 said:

I booked a hotel on Agoda that clearly stated that breakfast was included. When I got to the hotel, they told me no breakfast . I showed them the Agoda confirmation and they told me that they never use Agoda due to problems in the past and always use Booking.com. In fact, I had made the booking over Agoda but the hotel had received the booking from Booking.com.  I told them it was basically the same company but they insisted that Agoda always makes mistakes.

 

As it turned out, the breakfast was terrible so I didn't really care but I still had to wonder who was at fault.

 

That's easy enough: the hotel management for allowing their staff to blame agoda when, by their own admission, they know that they "always makes mistakes". The hotel, by insisting it was all agoda's fault, basically insisted that you were an idiot for using them.

 

Agoda has no way to add a free breakfast to a hotel's offer, either mistakenly or dishonestly. They display the room rates and offers given them by the hotel. Maybe the hotel did offer included breakfast previously, changed that offer and either haven't updated their agoda listing or agoda has missed the change. Nevertheless, the hotel hasn't done anything about it, knows there's an issue but preferring the "always makes mistakes" excuse while taking advantage of customers being wrongly advised.

[JoseThailand]

No problems rebooking flights booked through Agoda - either through Agoda or directly with the airline

[JoseThailand]

14 hours ago, soi3eddie said:

After Covid and the flight refund debacle, anyone who books flights other than direct with the airline by credit card must be mad. 

 

Booking a 1000 baht flight and paying 200 baht more for credit card fees when using the airline website? No thanks

[blazes]

Been with Agoda for 15 years.  Their points accumulation thingy was a good idea, but somewhere along the line they changed (as noted on this thread) and now, when I book, they never mention the points.  Sneaky, but you have to be a cheapo to really care about something so trivial.

 

What Agoda is good about is the ability not to pay until a day or three before your booking starts.  I recently had to cancel several bookings....nice 'n clean, never have to worry that their computer has actually done the work of cancelling.  (Mind you, you do have to search for the cancel booking site.)

 

Their assistants, when something goes wrong, are very helpful and speak good (Singapore??) English.

[rwill]

Agoda, booking, and kayak are all owned by the same corporation.

[Andycoops]

16 hours ago, GypsyT said:

I agree - Agoda no good.

 

I lost $ 6.00 "cash back" because I didn't want to keep my CC on their file " for future reservations".

Same with their App, they push it hard. I don't use it.

 

Now, $ 6 is nothing but I got p... off the way they lie. They send me a letter; " Our CASH BACK is a gift". No obligation to pay.... After reading fine print it is there too!

What a joke company - part of Booking,com.

They sell same hotels under two different names in Vietnam. They make it to look like there's competition. That happened 2 times to me.

 

I also had bad experience with Traveloka,com. A few days after booking and paying by the CC I got 5 same day charges totaling $ 791.00. All in the US, Texas and Kentucky, while I was in Vietnam.

My bank's investigator at Chase told me "There's a ring in Asia who sell CC info to US crooks who use the card. Chase deleted all charges.

 

I try always use cash but sometimes can't, like future hotels. I am very selective where I use my cards but sh..t happens.

 

Sample how they operate;

 

13. Re: Agoda cashback rewards

Mar 26, 2024, 6:58 PM

 

It's basically a scam. When you go and try and redeem your cashback rewards, it will give you an error saying "oops there is a problem, come back in 24 hours". Which never goes away. Finally you go and check the terms and conditions, and discover it's actually a scam:

 

5. Please note that the cashback reward, being a gift from Agoda to you as a valued User, is at and shall remain at all times in Agoda’s sole and absolute discretion. You understand and accept that Agoda will not at any time incur any obligation to you in respect of the cashback reward, and you will not have any claim against Agoda in respect of the cashback reward."

 

Personally I avoid all loyalty programs as a scam in the offering.

 

I'm not interested or nor do I need cashback, miles, kilometres etc etc

 

Most lapse after a while and I couldn't care less.

[Skeptic7]

Love and use AGODA for 99% of hotel bookings, though recently found BOOKING had a cheaper rate on a resort near Kaeng Krachan NP. 

 

Never considered using them for flights, because as you apparently learned the hard way...too much fine print. Definitely prefer to book directly with the air carrier. 

 

That said, have used CheapOair a couple times without any problems. 

[hollywood998]

I booked a flight with Thai airlines paying with American Express pre Covid which Thai airlines cancelled March 27th, I am still waiting for my refund after 8 requests with refund reference. 
 It is more than 4 years with their answer refund coming soon.

[Yellowtail]

2 hours ago, JoseThailand said:

 

Booking a 1000 baht flight and paying 200 baht more for credit card fees when using the airline website? No thanks

Where can you fly for 1000 baht?

 

I don't think I have ever paid credit card fees booking a flight. 

[tomazbodner]

17 hours ago, Tropicalevo said:

I did not know that they booked flights.

I got this amazing offer on flight from Bangkok to Pattaya after booking a hotel in Sriracha...

 

[blazes]

7 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

Where can you fly for 1000 baht?

 

 

Not sure about "fly", but you could taxi from the Gate at Suvarnaphumi to the runway....

[John49]

I often book hotels through Agoda.

It’s clear from the many listed room rate options that I’m paying extra for breakfast, and the hotels have always provided my ‘free breakfast’.

 

The reason I check Agoda rates is that they usually seem to be the cheapest.

I ignore the bits about cashback or points – small money - waste of time.

 

As for flights, I check sites offering multiple options, note the deals, then go and book with airline direct for same price or slightly more.

If there should be issues, I don’t want to talk through a third party.

[jaywalker2]

3 hours ago, NanLaew said:

 

That's easy enough: the hotel management for allowing their staff to blame agoda when, by their own admission, they know that they "always makes mistakes". The hotel, by insisting it was all agoda's fault, basically insisted that you were an idiot for using them.

 

Agoda has no way to add a free breakfast to a hotel's offer, either mistakenly or dishonestly. They display the room rates and offers given them by the hotel. Maybe the hotel did offer included breakfast previously, changed that offer and either haven't updated their agoda listing or agoda has missed the change. Nevertheless, the hotel hasn't done anything about it, knows there's an issue but preferring the "always makes mistakes" excuse while taking advantage of customers being wrongly advised.

What she actually said was that their hotel does not list on Agoda because of problems in the past. She said they only use booking.com. She showed me the reservation and, indeed, it did come from booking.com although I had made it through Agoda.  And when I checked the listing on booking.com later, breakfast was not included.

 

So i  can only assume that the hotel made the listing on booking.com, which then listed it on Agoda. Agoda is strange in many respects though. For example, prices will differ depending on how you access the site. For example, in the past, I've seen different prices listed if I go directly to the site or access it through a third party like google maps. And of course it's well known that prices change depending on your location. I have also seen hotels that are listed as sold out but I could find a booking if I went through a third party site. Given the various permutations, I wouldn't be surprised if they're making mistakes.

[LALes]

1 hour ago, rwill said:

Agoda, booking, and kayak are all owned by the same corporation.

It's amazing that Booking can be so good while Agoda can be so bad.  Booking gives you the total price when you search.  Agoda doesn't include taxes and fees in their quoted price.  Agoda is useless if you have a complaint.  A couple of Indians in a call center who just parrot the company line.  Booking isn't much better with the customer service but at least you know what you're paying.

[Kalorymetr]

12 hours ago, jaywalker2 said:

I booked a hotel on Agoda that clearly stated that breakfast was included. When I got to the hotel, they told me no breakfast . I showed them the Agoda confirmation and they told me that they never use Agoda due to problems in the past and always use Booking.com. In fact, I had made the booking over Agoda but the hotel had received the booking from Booking.com.  I told them it was basically the same company but they insisted that Agoda always makes mistakes.

 

As it turned out, the breakfast was terrible so I didn't really care but I still had to wonder who was at fault.

Hotel was lying.

[EVENKEEL]

48 minutes ago, tomazbodner said:

I got this amazing offer on flight from Bangkok to Pattaya after booking a hotel in Sriracha...

 

You're having a laff, right?

[EVENKEEL]

56 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

Where can you fly for 1000 baht?

 

I don't think I have ever paid credit card fees booking a flight. 

I'm charged using foreign credit card.

[Kalorymetr]

14 minutes ago, LALes said:

It's amazing that Booking can be so good while Agoda can be so bad.  Booking gives you the total price when you search.  Agoda doesn't include taxes and fees in their quoted price.  Agoda is useless if you have a complaint.  A couple of Indians in a call center who just parrot the company line.  Booking isn't much better with the customer service but at least you know what you're paying.

You can change price setting to include tax on Agoda too. They target Asians and they fall for those tricks, fake discounts, popups, hidden taxes.

 

Even I went to buy mattress and asked lady how come there's 75% discount. Seller said it's for Thais, they like big discounts but it's not real. Original price is random.

[Celsius]

No booking site will refund you if the flight is delayed.

 

Rich retirees whining about 6 baht cash back?

 

If you booked a breakfast and got offered no breakfast it is hotel who is trying to scam you,

 

 

Anything else?

[outsidetrader]

Always a bad experience with Agoda ...you think you have the best price ,pay and a far bigger price pops up seconds b4 you pay and often too late ...Round in circles to answer too .