Couple months ago my father booked a hotel room in Singapore through Agoda. (We live in Makassar Indonesia. The purpose of the trip was to attend a business meeting). Agoda said it had been confirmed, but upon arrival my father wasn't allowed to stay in the hotel.
Apparently the room my father booked wasn't real, there were no such room they said, so my father left to find another hotel.

He got late into the meeting, they had to postponed the meeting to later that night and then the next day in the morning. I think it was a humiliating event, and he is really upset. Also there were other costs like taxi fares he had to pay to find another hotel (its a foreign city and he had little knowledge of where the hotels are nor their prices).

We had asked for compensations for both tangible and intangible damages. But agoda only paid back the booking fee. This is not fair I think, wouldn't anyone agree?

Hmmm... thanks for the heads up, but I've used Agoda dozens of times and never had a problem... I will keep using them so long as they are the cheapest.

__________________
Owner, travelforum.org
My latest travels: Shikoku Pilgrimage

Hi,
I have found Agoda to be very good in Singapore. So sorry to hear of the problems with your father.

Hi,
I am working mainly in Germany as a sales manager and need to stay min. 3-4 nights a week in german hotels (business-stay) during my travel.
For that reason, I need an invoice incl. tax-rate and tax-percentage or I get in trouble with our bookkeeping.
With 2 hotels(TRYP-hotel + RADISSON INN-hotel) I had a lot of stress,because
they didn't gave me any invoice(answer:"your room is already payed by Agoda
and on their webside you can print the needed invoice(in US-Dollar without any tax-declaration) by yourselve").
These bad experiences and the fact, that you couldn't see via Internet, if there will be a problem with the invoice, are the reasons, why I don't book anymore for business-stay via Agoda.
I even tried, to contact Agoda several times via email and phone, but never received any answer (= not customerfriendly...).
For several other bookings(10-12) I haven't had problems with the invoice
(I could pay with check-in and received my invoice,incl.tax immediately).
If Agoda is reading this message, maybe they change something in the arrangements with TRYP,RADISSON,etc., so that me and many other business-travellers will have fun while booking via Agoda...
best regards
ReWiZa

I having just joined your forum must say that I must be very lucky or you guys are doing something wrong with your bookings both with Agoda or Asia Rooms. I have used both up to 12 times each a year (ye, I travel a bit) & never had any of the problems you guys are experiencing.I had to cancel twice & refund from Agoda came thru on my credit card with no hassle.
Always get an invoice, always have my 1 or 2 special requests met,
& hotel know about them before I arrive.
My only argument with hotels not with Ag or Ar is in this day & age this stupid extra charge for internet. C'mon everybody lets put some pressure on hotels to always include in hotel rate. If the hotels check this take note, I will always stay in the hotel that includes this service, &
it is not just the money but the hassle.
Safe traveling everybody;

I travel around Asia quite a lot for business and pleasure and have found that Agoda rates are usually the best. I've never had a bad experience but I have heard that sometimes after you book the hotel has no rooms but usually they alert you within 48 hours so well before your travel date unless you are doing last minute bookings.

I was planning a trip to Bangkok so booked a hotel for a 2 night stay. The reason i booked this particular hotel was because it said "free cancellation" up to 48 hours before. As i knew there was a possibility my plans would change, this sounded perfect. I cancelled the hotel about a week before and was then told that i would get only 50% back. Apparently there is some teeny tiny small print somewhere that says if you cancel less than 14 days before then you only get half of your money back. Ok, so maybe that's my fault a bit but the website is very misleading. This, however, is not the worst part. You are supposed to get your refund "within 7-10 business days" (quoted from agoda). I finally got mine after 2 months of waiting and a ton of angry emails from me. Their customer service was appalling, they were so unhelpful and uncommunicative and as the refund took so long, i was charged a 12 pounds late fee from my credit card company!! I really think that they should foot the bill for this, don't you??

Yes, booking through Agoda is cheap, but just be careful of their "free cancellation" policy as it is a total con!!

We have just returned from a holiday in Bali, booked through agoda.We had to change Hotel, because my wife has difficulty in climbing stairs. The hotel we booked through Agoda was very accomodating and tried to get us into their sister hotel, this was still not suitable, so we found one that was. The original hotel transported us free of charge and suggested we contact Agoda for a refund.My wife emailed Agoda re the problem and was refunde the total amount.

We definitely will use Agoda again, thanks for the service.