Agoda, 2026 Scammer

[liegunawan]

I will share here my experience being scammed by Agoda in daylight, and maybe ... you already got scammed before too by them, without realizing it.

I am non-Malaysian based in SG and often travel to Malaysia, I know as non-Malaysian, we will need to pay tourism fee MYR 10 when we stay at Hotel.

There is one hotel I like, affordable enough and clean, comfortable, so if I travel solo, I will just stay there, and I did few times. But few weeks ago, when I checked into that Hotel, the staff told me, they didn't received tourism tax from Agoda, where usually Agoda already include inside their booking fee.

This is sample of my booking 2019851644 <== real booking ID
Room charge: ~25 SGD
Taxes and Fees: ~5 SGD
Total: around 30 SGD

I never like this part, Agoda receipt never clearly states what is the breakdown of those taxes and fees. It's like they intentionally hide some fees.

That weekend coincidently, I actually stayed 2 nights, I booked at the same hotel with different booking ID. Similar pricing, ~30 SGD ish per night. But for this one (booking ID 2029587318), the staff told me they received the tourism fee from Agoda, so the hotel staff only need to collect MYR 10 for 1 night tourism fee that missing in that booking id 2019851644

I stayed there few times, to a point, one of the staff already know me, and I know the staffs in that hotel quite trustable too. So I contact Agoda about this missing tourism fee (not the first time happened to me), but this time I know Agoda fcuked up.

I contacted Agoda side multiple times, with many different agents, where ended up with one good agent who willing to check this issue further. Upon checked, Agoda found out, the 3rd party company they used to collect and/or forward this tourism fee has FAILED to forward the money to the hotel, that's why the hotel didn't received it for my booking (2019851644)

Agoda staff called me by phone call and told me to get the receipt from the hotel and send it to them for tourism fee refund, which I did. I asked the hotel official receipt for my tourist fee payment in cash when I checked in. After that I sent it to Agoda, but they didn't refund my money, they claim the receipt is not complete, doesnt has hotel stamp, no official signature, etc.

WTF, first, this is already Agoda side mistake, why the fcuk I need to work so hard to get the stamp and the signature while it is clearly Agoda side failure (directly or indirectly) and they already knew it too by now.

Second, I know the money is small for today currency, it is only MYR 10 or SGD 3-ish, but imagine how much money they have been double charging people for tourism fee that they never deliver to the hotel. It is very difficult for customer (like me, like you) to prove that they are wrong, since the receipt you can get from Agoda never state what are those taxes or fees. Which is mean, it is technically true that they are SCAMMER.

I contacted Agoda again, and again, same claim, that I need to get the hotel signature / stamp etc. And they haven't refund my money until now.

FCUKING SCAMMER, I personally cancelled 90% my future bookings from them and move to trip.com (not booking.com since it is same group with Agoda)

Be alert of this hidden double charge, if you travel often with those kind of taxes, you might have been double charged so many times like I did, just you haven't realized it. Long story short, simple, don't use Agoda or Booking anymore. Go trip.com (im not sponsored to say this, just one of good options I usually use), if not Traveloka.

 

[reddevil0728]

I will share here my experience being scammed by Agoda in daylight, and maybe ... you already got scammed before too by them, without realizing it.

I am non-Malaysian based in SG and often travel to Malaysia, I know as non-Malaysian, we will need to pay tourism fee MYR 10 when we stay at Hotel.

There is one hotel I like, affordable enough and clean, comfortable, so if I travel solo, I will just stay there, and I did few times. But few weeks ago, when I checked into that Hotel, the staff told me, they didn't received tourism tax from Agoda, where usually Agoda already include inside their booking fee.

This is sample of my booking 2019851644 <== real booking ID
Room charge: ~25 SGD
Taxes and Fees: ~5 SGD
Total: around 30 SGD

I never like this part, Agoda receipt never clearly states what is the breakdown of those taxes and fees. It's like they intentionally hide some fees.

That weekend coincidently, I actually stayed 2 nights, I booked at the same hotel with different booking ID. Similar pricing, ~30 SGD ish per night. But for this one (booking ID 2029587318), the staff told me they received the tourism fee from Agoda, so the hotel staff only need to collect MYR 10 for 1 night tourism fee that missing in that booking id 2019851644

I stayed there few times, to a point, one of the staff already know me, and I know the staffs in that hotel quite trustable too. So I contact Agoda about this missing tourism fee (not the first time happened to me), but this time I know Agoda fcuked up.

I contacted Agoda side multiple times, with many different agents, where ended up with one good agent who willing to check this issue further. Upon checked, Agoda found out, the 3rd party company they used to collect and/or forward this tourism fee has FAILED to forward the money to the hotel, that's why the hotel didn't received it for my booking (2019851644)

Agoda staff called me by phone call and told me to get the receipt from the hotel and send it to them for tourism fee refund, which I did. I asked the hotel official receipt for my tourist fee payment in cash when I checked in. After that I sent it to Agoda, but they didn't refund my money, they claim the receipt is not complete, doesnt has hotel stamp, no official signature, etc.

WTF, first, this is already Agoda side mistake, why the fcuk I need to work so hard to get the stamp and the signature while it is clearly Agoda side failure (directly or indirectly) and they already knew it too by now.

Second, I know the money is small for today currency, it is only MYR 10 or SGD 3-ish, but imagine how much money they have been double charging people for tourism fee that they never deliver to the hotel. It is very difficult for customer (like me, like you) to prove that they are wrong, since the receipt you can get from Agoda never state what are those taxes or fees. Which is mean, it is technically true that they are SCAMMER.

I contacted Agoda again, and again, same claim, that I need to get the hotel signature / stamp etc. And they haven't refund my money until now.

FCUKING SCAMMER, I personally cancelled 90% my future bookings from them and move to trip.com (not booking.com since it is same group with Agoda)

Be alert of this hidden double charge, if you travel often with those kind of taxes, you might have been double charged so many times like I did, just you haven't realized it. Long story short, simple, don't use Agoda or Booking anymore. Go trip.com (im not sponsored to say this, just one of good options I usually use), if not Traveloka.

1. firstly what you described doesn't sound like a scam but just poor service. i would refrained from making such a serious allegation that you cannot justify.

2. secondly, why only cancel 90%?

 

[liegunawan]

1. firstly what you described doesn't sound like a scam but just poor service. i would refrained from making such a serious allegation that you cannot justify.

2. secondly, why only cancel 90%?

1. Agoda already understood that they had made mistake, they require me to ask for proof of receipt that the Hotel asked me money in cash, which I did. They claim the receipt I got is not legitimate enough since it has no stamp or signature from the hotel. In this situation, don't they able to get the receipt and/or the stamp they require from the hotel themselves? You call this poor service ? If they have good intention to solve this problem, they should know I have done more than enough on my part as customer, they are OTA who received commissions on my booking.

I mentioned, I actually contacted them to ask for the detail receipts , which might contain the details of taxes and fees many times, maybe like 5-6 times, and not to forget to mention, their app is so sucks, sometimes the "send" button can't be pressed since their screens is being zoomed and shifted (i send few screenshots of this app issue to their agents too). And after all these effort, none of their receipts contain the details nor I get the explanations of the breakdown when I asked them in phone call. Yeah, maybe we can call it "Poor service" when we see additional undisclosed taxes and fees in our bills, and no explanation even after we ask for it.

2. there are some bookings too close to change according my future travel plan, i really wish i could move all my bookings (100%) to trip.com, i have used agoda many times, but this time, i can see clearly how fcuk up they are and how they solve the issue. I am a customer, I am not trying to be a king, but the way they asked me the receipt with stamp is unnecessarily stupid, while they can contact the hotel themselves to double check if the receipt is real.

Looking back, i also not sure how many times i have booked hotel in Malaysia, checked-in and being asked for MYR 10 to pay the tourism fee, while Agoda might already charged me too. Maybe .... you can arguably call it "Poor service" , when you pay part of the service/goods, but it never arrived (the unclear taxes and fees).

And this is me, one person, I can't imagine how many times, how many people got affected when their system failed to forward that tourism fee to the hotel while the hotels asking again the tourists to pay tourism fee when check in.

I have travelled and stayed so many times in Malaysia, only after that I can know Agoda system is screwed. I bet most of people won't realized it, and it's not the Hotel mistake to ask for tourism fee since the money actually stuck on Agoda system.


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I do not feel offended at all with your opinion. Instead thanks for the warning. But this is another example how I see it:

- When you go to a store / shop, to buy their service/goods, the price shows "SGD 100 include taxes and fees". You have interest on this, so you take/buy it, then you go to cashier to pay, it shows "SGD 109" (additional SGD 9 for GST) in their system, you call this "Poor Service" ? I call this "Scam" at this point, maybe .... I have something wrong with my dictionary, maybe ...

- then you ask them "then what is that 'include taxes and fees' means in the first place", then they give no explanation, you call it "Poor service"?

- then you ask the cashier to check with their team/manager about this issue, they found out, that the service price should be SGD 91.74 (so plus 9% GST should be SGD 100), but their system now configured as SGD 100. So for today, you have no choice but to pay SGD 109 since you already used their service. And they ask you to create a letter/invoice to them, so they can reimburse you the difference SGD 9.0.

- So being a gud gud boy, you decided to create a simple invoice to them, asking them to refund your money SGD 9.0. After you gave that letter to them, they said, "ah, your letter not formal looking enough.", you call this "Poor service"? I do not call this poor service, because at this point, it is clear enough for me to see their intention, to blur the meaning of that "taxes and fees" part and how much lack their interest/intention to refund my money, knowing the mistake is on their side. they can create whatever letter/invoice they need for their accounting purpose, but it s not customer problem.

 

[reddevil0728]

1. Agoda already understood that they had made mistake, they require me to ask for proof of receipt that the Hotel asked me money in cash, which I did. They claim the receipt I got is not legitimate enough since it has no stamp or signature from the hotel. In this situation, don't they able to get the receipt and/or the stamp they require from the hotel themselves? You call this poor service ? If they have good intention to solve this problem, they should know I have done more than enough on my part as customer, they are OTA who received commissions on my booking.

I mentioned, I actually contacted them to ask for the detail receipts , which might contain the details of taxes and fees many times, maybe like 5-6 times, and not to forget to mention, their app is so sucks, sometimes the "send" button can't be pressed since their screens is being zoomed and shifted (i send few screenshots of this app issue to their agents too). And after all these effort, none of their receipts contain the details nor I get the explanations of the breakdown when I asked them in phone call. Yeah, maybe we can call it "Poor service" when we see additional undisclosed taxes and fees in our bills, and no explanation even after we ask for it.

2. there are some bookings too close to change according my future travel plan, i really wish i could move all my bookings (100%) to trip.com, i have used agoda many times, but this time, i can see clearly how fcuk up they are and how they solve the issue. I am a customer, I am not trying to be a king, but the way they asked me the receipt with stamp is unnecessarily stupid, while they can contact the hotel themselves to double check if the receipt is real.

Looking back, i also not sure how many times i have booked hotel in Malaysia, checked-in and being asked for MYR 10 to pay the tourism fee, while Agoda might already charged me too. Maybe .... you can arguably call it "Poor service" , when you pay part of the service/goods, but it never arrived (the unclear taxes and fees).

And this is me, one person, I can't imagine how many times, how many people got affected when their system failed to forward that tourism fee to the hotel while the hotels asking again the tourists to pay tourism fee when check in.

I have travelled and stayed so many times in Malaysia, only after that I can know Agoda system is screwed. I bet most of people won't realized it, and it's not the Hotel mistake to ask for tourism fee since the money actually stuck on Agoda system.


======


I do not feel offended at all with your opinion. Instead thanks for the warning. But this is another example how I see it:

- When you go to a store / shop, to buy their service/goods, the price shows "SGD 100 include taxes and fees". You have interest on this, so you take/buy it, then you go to cashier to pay, it shows "SGD 109" (additional SGD 9 for GST) in their system, you call this "Poor Service" ? I call this "Scam" at this point, maybe .... I have something wrong with my dictionary, maybe ...

- then you ask them "then what is that 'include taxes and fees' means in the first place", then they give no explanation, you call it "Poor service"?

- then you ask the cashier to check with their team/manager about this issue, they found out, that the service price should be SGD 91.74 (so plus 9% GST should be SGD 100), but their system now configured as SGD 100. So for today, you have no choice but to pay SGD 109 since you already used their service. And they ask you to create a letter/invoice to them, so they can reimburse you the difference SGD 9.0.

- So being a gud gud boy, you decided to create a simple invoice to them, asking them to refund your money SGD 9.0. After you gave that letter to them, they said, "ah, your letter not formal looking enough.", you call this "Poor service"? I do not call this poor service, because at this point, it is clear enough for me to see their intention, to blur the meaning of that "taxes and fees" part and how much lack their interest/intention to refund my money, knowing the mistake is on their side. they can create whatever letter/invoice they need for their accounting purpose, but it s not customer problem.

Still doesn’t rise to the level of calling it a scam leh.

I know nowadays it’s a buzzword, but “A scam is a deceptive or fraudulent scheme designed to trick individuals or groups into giving away money or personal details. Scammers use false information, attractive deals, or impersonation (like fake government officials or courier companies) to gain trust and steal funds.”

What you described doesn’t seem to have reached that standard in fact it’s referring to very different things

 

[Garlic & Butter]

not just Agoda. Trip.com also does this scam. Think is a country-wide issue


during booking, ALWAYS declare yourself as Malaysian or MY resident, so that they dont charge you that RM 10 upfront. just pay the the front desk.

 

[Innocuous*]

I have used Agoda and Trip.com to book hotels in KL and never encountered tourism tax issue, i.e. never asked to make payment for the tax during check in.

 

[lordfa9]

This RM10 rule seems poorly applied; I remember being asked to pay it previously but not in recent memory

As far as Bolehland goes, Hanlon's Razor always applies

 

[li9ht5peed]

when will people quit and stop using apps for everything?

 

[idiot444]

when will people quit and stop using apps for everything?

And then go to Chinatown tour agency and ask them to book and get chopped ?? or pick up the phone to call the hotel directly like the Japanese way??