Tried using Agoda to book hotels on a recent trip through Southeast Asia. If you don't experience any challenges or don't need to make changes, you're probably fine, but if you ever need customer service you are out of luck. They post claims about responding to issues within 24 hours but they don't respond at all (my experience).
I ran into one problem where the hotel refused to recognize the Agoda confirmation and I had to effectively pay twice. Despite emails, Agoda never responded at all. Most travelers we've talked to have had similar experiences if not more agregious.

Dear Sir/Madam

I am writing to lodge a formal complaint regarding a recent booking made through your travel company, Agoda.

16/02/12 I made a booking for Bahia Othon Palace Hotel, Salvador, South America.
Six days after the booking I had not received my hotel e-voucher (it is stated in your information that this should be received within 48 hours) so I contacted your support team via email asking for it to be sent through. The following day I received a reply explaining there was a system error on your side and so I was asked to make further contact so Agoda could provide me with an adequate solution.

I called your support team.
A consultant explained that the room I had booked was unavailable; I have trouble understanding why an unavailable hotel room would be advertised as available. After spending over an hour waiting on the hotel phone (NZ$200 at my expense, receipt available) the consultant re-booked the exact same room for the exact same date. He insisted I ring back in exactly 1 hour to confirm that I wanted the room - I assured him I did but he said the booking would not be processed unless I rang again.
I am confused because I have made several successful bookings with Agoda and have never been asked to call through to confirm.

An hour later I rang as requested (not something I felt like doing on my holiday, at midnight). After several attempts I was finally connected to a consultant who had incredible difficulty speaking English and who disconnected me 3 times. She did not call me back after the 3rd time. In my opinion, that is poor customer service. At around 1.30am I gave up

The following day I called Agoda again (third time in 2 days) and waited another 30 minutes before being connected to the operator, which cost me NZ$75 and then a further NZ$30 at an Internet cafe. Surely I should not have had to incur these costs through your team's lack of service?

Again I explained the entire situation and the consultant assured me she would sort the mess out once and for all and would call me back at our hotel within 2 hours.
After 3 1/2 hours of waiting at our hotel we still had not heard from her.
To say we were very disheartened with the way Agoda's staff had let us down would be an understatement.

I then wrote a complaint letter to the support team who replied stating that hotel reception had said we were not in the room when they tried to make contact - I can assure you we were most certainly in our room as this mess had already ruined part of our holiday and clearly we wanted this drama over as soon as possible.

Agoda continued by saying that it is not possible to confirm this booking due to a constant system error, so please be advised that we would like to offer you to cancel this reservation with full refund and also we are offering you the amount of the first night as a compensation for the inconvenience that happened.

But why would the consultant make a second booking with the same hotel if it was already clear that there was a system error in place? I replied explaining they had my bank details but I am yet to receive the compensation promised. It is almost 3 weeks now.

Our flight was due to land in Salvador that afternoon and because of this mess we had no time to re-book additional accommodation. We then caught a taxi to Bahia Othon Palace Hotel in the hope of a vacancy since Agoda had explained the problem was with their system not the hotel's.
The exact same room was booked for us but the cost of that room had almost doubled.

The hotel manager said they had absolutely no affiliation with Agoda and that I was the 2nd person to arrive saying Agoda had booked them.

Further, in your advert for Bahia Othon Palace Hotel you state that on site is a gym, sauna, tennis court, golf course, casino, indoor pool, jacuzzi, steam room and spa. NONE of these are present at the hotel. Surely this is false advertising on your part. We were further disillusioned and disappointed since I had specifically booked this hotel as an anniversary surprise for my partner. We were both shocked to see this was not the case when we arrived.
On your web page you state SECURE and FAST. Satisfaction Guaranteed! Again, I mention false advertising.

We appreciate Agoda's gesture (which we have yet to receive) however this has ruined several days of a great first holiday. We spent over NZ$305 on toll calls (the majority accumulated on waiting for the operator). Receipts available.
Originally I regarded Agoda as a trustworthy and competent booking company and wouldn't have hesitated recommending you, however this ongoing situation has left us dumbfounded.

While we cannot get those wasted days back we would, however, appreciate compensation for the time wasted on the phone and the accommodation refund and compensation as promised by you.

I am waiting now for you to get back to me with your solution to this whole mess.

yours sincerely


Anna Lund