AGODA?

[mrsboz]

Has anyone ever heard of Agoda? It’s like booking.com. I am looking at hotel prices and this Agoda popped up with the others. It is MUCH cheaper than the others - like $100 cheaper. Has anyone used them? What’s the catch?

Thank you.

 

[Random Ninja]

The catch is that they have horrible customer service and will likely screw you over. I’ve used them twice in the past and will never do so again. The first time was just okay, but the second time was absolutely horrible. They cancelled our reservation at 10pm AFTER we had already checked into the hotel. It was such a mess to sort out and we ended up paying the hotel directly for a higher amount after agoda refused to help with us. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Save yourself the hassle and use a more reputable company.

 

[kuhltiffany]

It was a preferred rate site for us with one credit card we had, no issues after we used it during a month long Europe trip.

 

[mom to minnie&mickey]

Our experience with them has been good. Back in 2020 we booked a European hotel room with them non-refundable. When all flights and travel shut down due to the pandemic they actually refunded us whereas another hotel booked directly with said hotel non-refundable refused to do so and we lost our money. I have our Disney resort booked with them for this summer. They were $150 cheaper (for just 4 nights) than Disney rack rate for same resort and room category. Lesson learned we now book only refundable rates and when about three days after I booked I saw they had an advertised price for $20 less for same room/resort I just went online and cancelled and re-booked with lower price (now $170 less) Very easy and payment is only due one week before check-in.

So, here's the catch. After you book your Disney resort you have to start an online chat with them and request your Disney confirmation number for MDE. You do not receive it automatically. Unfortunately you cannot speak to someone on the phone. It was actually quite easy and the next morning I received an e-mail with the number which linked right away to MDE. When I cancelled and re-booked for lower price I had to do this over again.

P.S. I found better prices with them when I went through Trivago vs. going directly through Agoda.

 

[jimmymc]

I don't go for travel websites who are also selling the product. They tend to skew reviews, and the websites don't always reflect the actual room types. They'll also randomly cancel reservations or sometimes it will get lost between the 3rd party site and the hotel. You can always try calling the hotel to see if they'll match the AGODA price.

 

[DLgal]

You should never book hotels or airfare through third party booking engines. There is no recourse when things go wrong. Hotels cannot help you when your reservation is made under one of these. It's not worth the savings.

 

[MomToOne]

Used it once for a hotel in Bali. Went fine. One tip is to call the hotel after a few days and make sure they actually have received the reservation from Agoda - we did that and then called again a few days before we got there to make sure they still had it. Same thing you should do with reservations from other third parties like Priceline, Kayak, etc.

Agoda is bigger in other countries. They just haven't had much traction in the US. I think because they tend to have more traction in countries like Australia, you sometimes get the equivalent of the deals places like Disney offer to residents of other countries, that can be better than what US residents get.

 

[_19disnA]

Never heard of that website but there are probably lots of them around. While I think it is fine to use any of those 3rd party websites to easily compare prices, I agree as mentioned above that doing the actual booking directly with the hotel or airline is my preference also. Most of those 3rd party sites are just combining data together for easier viewing. Any supposed savings goes out the window if you can never contact them or their customer service people are unresponsive when there are issues. If there is a problem and you are left with each party blaming the other, then your savings means nothing. Having them randomly cancel a confirmed reservation would be a reason to never use them again regardless of why it happened.

 

[pannellc34]

I just booked with Agoda for a trip on April 12. They beat everyone else's price by $125. Im really nervous because I read some bad reviews about Agoda canceling hotel rooms the night before or even the day of. I am not sure what I'm going to do but I will report back if I decide to keep it and share my experience.

I just emailed them to ask for reservation number to link to the Disney App becauae the confirmation number in my email is not correct or maybe I need to wait 72 hours for it to get into the system. However, the number I received from a room I booked on another site linked instantly. I hope this isn't a dud.

 

[pannellc34]

They answered my email/chat really fast. This is the response I received.

"I believe that you already tried to link your reservation to "My Disney Experience", and selected the “Through a Travel Professional” option from the dropdown menu.
If you’ve recently made a reservation, you may have to wait 24 hours for it to appear online."

I didn't see that option about the "through travel professional", but I'll try again tomorrow.

 

[DodgerGirl]

One word of warning is do not ever use Agoda to get a hotel anywhere if you are traveling. My parents tried Agoda once when we were gonna stay at a Best Western hotel and we found a great deal on Agoda for Best Western and reserved a room with the deal we found. The next day we recieved a call from the Best Western manager wanting to talk to us about our deal with Agoda. So my parents went to talk to the manager and he told us that Agoda did not honor the deal and we asked the manager why and he said that there was no deal and the room would be expensive. It turned out Best Western had a lot of complaints from Agoda and we asked the manager what he could do and all he told us was to find another hotel. And my dad had a hard time trying to cancel the reservation with Agoda and they put him on hold and then bullied him. And so my parents ended up with a room at Residence Inn which was cheaper and after what happened to us we never ever used Agoda again

 

[pannellc34]

One word of warning is do not ever use Agoda to get a hotel anywhere if you are traveling. My parents tried Agoda once when we were gonna stay at a Best Western hotel and we found a great deal on Agoda for Best Western and reserved a room with the deal we found. The next day we recieved a call from the Best Western manager wanting to talk to us about our deal with Agoda. So my parents went to talk to the manager and he told us that Agoda did not honor the deal and we asked the manager why and he said that there was no deal and the room would be expensive. It turned out Best Western had a lot of complaints from Agoda and we asked the manager what he could do and all he told us was to find another hotel. And my dad had a hard time trying to cancel the reservation with Agoda and they put him on hold and then bullied him. And so my parents ended up with a room at Residence Inn which was cheaper and after what happened to us we never ever used Agoda again

Thank you. I'm canceling my room with them. Too much of a gamble and I've been so stressed and worried can't even look forward to thr trip. Why put myself through this to save a few bucks? My peace of mind is worth more than that.

 

[ArielFlounderSebastian357]

How does anyone keep all these sites straight? I look up a place on google and there's so many sites that show up.

Agoda was one of them. I'm glad I saw this to be wary of them