Agoda a scam

[Beefsteak]

agoda payment doesn't go thru immediately. unlike other booking app

so hotels may not "reserve" for u if they are tight

other apps i book with, within 3 biz days, i can see deduction from my credit card. if i call the hotel within 12 hours to cfm if my booking went thru, its all confirmed. and i was very much assured. but not with agoda

agoda rates is good
but if i can i wouldnt go with agoda.

they at times do not confirm that you have managed to do a booking, no email confirmation or valid booked ID. I actually have to call the hotel myself, and they also dun see the confirmation, until i gave them the details of the room booked, what time/date i book and the alias booked under. Happened a few times

Whereas booking.com hotelscombined, dun have this issue, booking.com will send a confirm code to the phone via sms and i jus need to show the hotel the sms

I advice you not to use their mobile app to book because it might be buggy. Just look at the app reviews and you will see others reporting payment issues as well.

Better use your PC and book through their website instead.

I've always been booking through Agoda website and always received email together with PDF of the booking confirmation and SMS confirmation right after payment. You can even check your agoda account in their website for all your bookings and print or request them to resend the confirmation.

 

[seianko]

I advice you not to use their mobile app to book because it might be buggy. Just look at the app reviews and you will see others reporting payment issues as well.

Better use your PC and book through their website instead.

I've always been booking through Agoda website and always received email together with PDF of the booking confirmation and SMS confirmation right after payment. You can even check your agoda account in their website for all your bookings and print or request them to resend the confirmation.

I use PC, and use app for loading my info.

i had to call them twice and email twice for a confirmation. in the end i call the hotel myself. happen twice

 

[Beefsteak]

I use PC, and use app for loading my info.

i had to call them twice and email twice for a confirmation. in the end i call the hotel myself. happen twice

Actually you don't even have to call or email the hotel directly.
Just go to 'My Bookings' in Agoda.com
Then you will see the list of all your confirmed bookings.
You can then 'send booking confirmation' there.
Btw make sure your email and and phone is registered correctly with Agoda

 

[seianko]

Actually you don't even have to call or email the hotel directly.
Just go to 'My Bookings' in Agoda.com
Then you will see the list of all your confirmed bookings.
You can then 'send booking confirmation' there.
Btw make sure your email and and phone is registered correctly with Agoda

precisely! why i say dunt have. cos it wasnt there at all
which was why i had to call,

which was what agoda insisted. I had to ss it for them. then they say give it few days. still dun have. by the time they got back to me, i am already back from my trip. took them 1 month

funny thing was, the hotel have my details, agoda system dun have. hotel ended up send me my confirmation and assured me they have receive payment

That said, i still feel booking.com was alot hassle free, its sms the code to my phone and i dun hv to open my email for the booking details.

 

[swordspirit]

it's a bug on chrome. maybe suay wrong time to book.

figures stayed the same no matter wat currency i changed to. alr notified them.

heng got free cancellation but the 1st cso i live-chat with forgotten to cancel for me.

what kind of bug is this?

Is this 1 where they had a rate of

i) USDxxx and will show the xxx amount no matter which currency you set for booking; or
ii) show you the SGDyyy amount but charge you in USDyyy instead (how about showing GBPzzz and charge usdzzz)

 

[rain_myth]

Booking.com

Expedia.com

Agoda.com

Of the three.. u choose the last one..

coz it starts with A and A comes first.

 

[swordspirit]

In summary,

- Pay now in local currency with NO free cancellation go for Agoda.
- Pay later at hotel in foreign currency with free cancellation go for Booking.com.
- Pay now in local currency with free cancellation for full refund go for Expedia.

Quite wrong understanding on how the websites works.

Summary of booking website pay-now rates:

Agoda -
If you choose pay-now, it will always bill you in the currency that you set (without any DCC if you choose SGD). They will convert the property rate at a rate very close to the spot rate. Verifiable by taking a dummy booking for pay-later rate vs a pay-now rate and convert it using xe.com

They have their own share of cancellable and non-cancellable rates. I canceled more than 30 rooms in 2018 when a lower rate came up.

Expedia
They will always bill you in the currency of the booking portal you visit (sg portal in SGD, UK portal in pounds, other Europe portal in Euro and US portal in USD). Even for SGD billing, there will be a 1% DCC charge.

Booking.com
Appears to always bill in property currency. SG cards typically have 2.8% bank charges. So if a rate is same between agoda and booking.com, agoda would still be cheaper

I dont use pay-later rate. so hard to comment. Do note that certain hotel (particularly European hotels) only have pay at hotel rates.

Comparison of rates
Agoda have quite good rates for Asia-pacific region. Booking.com is much better in Europe/US region.

Expedia is the anomaly where the rates could varies across various country portals (after you factor in the spot rate) by up to 10%? Have not really seen a country where they are stronger then the other 2. Maybe have better rate for a few hotels.

Comparison of discount code
Agoda codes need tactics but if it works, it works for multiple rooms booking. Agoda click-through rates can varies from consolidator to consolidator

Expedia codes only work for first room. You need to book multiple times if you booking multiple rooms. Easier to find their codes.

Booking.com
Seldom have discount code, instead have cashback referral links (10% easily available). Good for hotels that dont accept discount code (Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Hyatt, etc.) and pay at hotel rates.

 

[seianko]

Quite wrong understanding on how the websites works.

Summary of booking website pay-now rates:

Agoda -
If you choose pay-now, it will always bill you in the currency that you set (without any DCC if you choose SGD). They will convert the property rate at a rate very close to the spot rate. Verifiable by taking a dummy booking for pay-later rate vs a pay-now rate and convert it using xe.com

They have their own share of cancellable and non-cancellable rates. I canceled more than 30 rooms in 2018 when a lower rate came up.

Expedia
They will always bill you in the currency of the booking portal you visit (sg portal in SGD, UK portal in pounds, other Europe portal in Euro and US portal in USD). Even for SGD billing, there will be a 1% DCC charge.

Booking.com
Appears to always bill in property currency. SG cards typically have 2.8% bank charges. So if a rate is same between agoda and booking.com, agoda would still be cheaper

I dont use pay-later rate. so hard to comment. Do note that certain hotel (particularly European hotels) only have pay at hotel rates.

Comparison of rates
Agoda have quite good rates for Asia-pacific region. Booking.com is much better in Europe/US region.

Expedia is the anomaly where the rates could varies across various country portals (after you factor in the spot rate) by up to 10%? Have not really seen a country where they are stronger then the other 2. Maybe have better rate for a few hotels.

Comparison of discount code
Agoda codes need tactics but if it works, it works for multiple rooms booking. Agoda click-through rates can varies from consolidator to consolidator

Expedia codes only work for first room. You need to book multiple times if you booking multiple rooms. Easier to find their codes.

Booking.com
Seldom have discount code, instead have cashback referral links (10% easily available). Good for hotels that dont accept discount code (Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Hyatt, etc.) and pay at hotel rates.

pay at hotel rates also have this thing where you pay certain money to lockdown rate iirc

 

[swordspirit]

pay at hotel rates also have this thing where you pay certain money to lockdown rate iirc

pay at hotel rates should be fixed price already at the local currency.

 

[seianko]

pay at hotel rates should be fixed price already at the local currency.

not all.

came across where they mention rates may not be fix or sth

 

[swordspirit]

not all.

came across where they mention rates may not be fix or sth

quite rare. this type i may just skip already.

 

[seianko]

quite rare. this type i may just skip already.

true. but if the price dates location fit, i jus choose pay now, cancel later

 

[wkeyl]

Agoda charges ridiculous fx exchange rate.

I made bookings for japan in their .sg website, ridiculously have bookings charged in sgd and jpy. For the jpy bookings, the exchange rate charged on payment date was 76 vs 82.3 spot rate, >10x spread charged by money changers.

At your own risk guys, should avoid such unscrupulous business ethics

ya, me too, they charged me by direct changing the currency unit to USD and convert to SGD. My booking for the hotel at the sg site was SGD100 pay later, but when the time they charge to my credit card, they were using USD100 and converted to SGD 140. i wrote to them about the issue and they do not refund the money as i have no proof to show them that i booked the hotel at SGD100. Really ridiculous.

 

[KirinFrost]

ya, me too, they charged me by direct changing the currency unit to USD and convert to SGD. My booking for the hotel at the sg site was SGD100 pay later, but when the time they charge to my credit card, they were using USD100 and converted to SGD 140. i wrote to them about the issue and they do not refund the money as i have no proof to show them that i booked the hotel at SGD100. Really ridiculous.

My refund still not showing even though they said they did

 

[Confession.pt3]

May be you saw wrongly? There are time when I use google to search the hotel name, it shows up in USD currency. If your interested hotel is on sale, the best is to choose Paynow with free cancellation. Don't ever choose Pay Later, Pay Later will be in the respective local currency and when the time they charge your card, they will take the fx rate on that day.

 

[oceanicmanta]

May be you saw wrongly? There are time when I use google to search the hotel name, it shows up in USD currency. If your interested hotel is on sale, the best is to choose Paynow with free cancellation. Don't ever choose Pay Later, Pay Later will be in the respective local currency and when the time they charge your card, they will take the fx rate on that day.

Pay later option will also attractive an additional fee/charge by Agoda, beside FX fluctuation

this was discussed before in this thread sometime last year I think

 

[wkeyl]

May be you saw wrongly? There are time when I use google to search the hotel name, it shows up in USD currency. If your interested hotel is on sale, the best is to choose Paynow with free cancellation. Don't ever choose Pay Later, Pay Later will be in the respective local currency and when the time they charge your card, they will take the fx rate on that day.

i am sure i never see wrongly, just too bad i did not take the screenshot of that page. I can search my browsing history which was showing the page info with promotion rate of S$21, but that history screenshot i sent to Agoda but they still refuse to do the refund and said i did not show any proof for the price that i booked.

 

[pacetone]

Overall, I see Agoda's service going downhill.

 

[dede1217]

agoda price guarantee very fast reply ... normally within a day or so ...
that's the good part about them ...

for expedia, they used to have price diff x 2 refund, capped at $125
Done before, to make the stay at $0.01 in the past ...
they have stopped few years back, perhaps due to too many submissions to handle ...

 

[Beefsteak]

Think I found a way to get the lowest rates in Agoda.
Use Google to search for the name of the hotel.
The hotel should appear on the right side of the page and there should be a "Book a Room" option. Click on that and select your dates and then select Agoda.

I found out that by using this method, the rates are lower than going into Agoda.com directly, hotelscombined or trivago.