Fuck Agoda!!! Just looking at 15 nights in Eastiny Seven was quoted £23 a day = £345. Clicked the "book" button and they add £74 tax and service fees. Thats over 20%!!!! Which makes the booking only slightly cheaper than rack rates which I'm sure I could get the same discount just be smiling a lot at the check-in desk!!!!

 

Anyone know what the hotel tax rate is in Thailand? This looks like a rip-off to me. I wouldn't be so mad if it wasn't so much, but 20% hidden charges is ridiculous.

Try asia rooms ,pay at hotel,not upfront,great rates too

did you actually pay? It shows you the full price before you pay. but yeah 20% is quite a bit, i thought it was normally only 10%

Use this site to compare online rates, it gives you the "after tax" rate

http://www.hotelscombined.com/

No I didnt book, spotted the charge first! I think sales tax in Thailand is 7% so adding 20% is offensive. Checked another hotel, April Suites, room rate £440, "tax and service" hidden charge £93, its actually over 21% they are adding, gits.

Edited December 3, 201213 yr by par47

Try Directrooms.com compares up to 254 sites and shows the all in price and you will see if Agoda's price is the best.

 

http://directrooms.com/

I always use Agoda and 99% of the time they work out to be the cheapest..

3 potential solutions

 

1 read pinned FAQS which explain how agoda etc works.

2 pm BM whitespider the hotel guru for these things.

3 pay agoda to kiss your ass but do compare with BG prices as they will do it for 1000 baht !

 

enjoyed

Agoda plays games in their presentation, even putting the tax in a smaller font

I hate pre booking on the internet, most times I ask for the top room available , when I get there I get some dog box that I have paid top rates , fuck that I just rock up at the door now

ok, Agoda's total price is about the same as anywhere else, what's annoying is they had to hide so much of the price and hit me with it at the end.

 

booking.com however has the same room at £411 fully inclusive quoted up front, which is slightly cheaper AND you dont have to pay up front either.

I hate pre booking on the internet, most times I ask for the top room available , when I get there I get some dog box that I have paid top rates , fuck that I just rock up at the door now

 

Agreed, if you pre-pay you have no control over the hotel. However I was prepared to gamble given the percieved discount making a substantial saving. As I now know I was being duped, there is no discount, I wont bother.

Sometimes they add fees, sometimes they don't. I've traveled where the hotel is XX amount, but much cheaper on Agoda. Then during checkout I noticed what you noticed and it ended up being the same price as walk-in with no discount at all. It doesn't happy all the time and I still use them.

I find agoda deliberately deceptive in their presentation. You do get the full price eventually, but have to click thru too many screens making it difficult and time consuming to do comparisons, so I refuse to use them.

 

Plenty of other web sites which tell the truth up front, many examples above, and I'd rather spend my money with them.

Edited December 4, 201213 yr by s77656769

Agreed, if you pre-pay you have no control over the hotel. However I was prepared to gamble given the percieved discount making a substantial saving. As I now know I was being duped, there is no discount, I wont bother.

 

I feel you're pain mate,

 

My situation happened with hotels in Udon Thani and Ubon Ratcathani, quality and rooms were far from what pics depicted

It is annoying, but the bottom line to me is are they still cheaper with the add on?...normally the answer is yes.

The only time I use Agoda is if I am in a hotel in front of reception and I tell them the hotel is cheaper on Agoda - and as they do in Thailand they say - you can book with them - so I do!!

I always stay at the same hotel in patts, 15 times now. The walk in rate i get is cheaper than agoda, even with their discounts.

The hidden taxes are annoying but still the best prices for hotels . Look for the Friday specials with 40/60% dicount they are good value .

I'm a premier member and get 7% extra discount . The walk in prices are always higher .

One of my credit cards gives extra 7% discount for agoda bookings, and there's also points to collect on agoda and credit card. So it's a pretty good deal to me as most cases they are still cheaper.

Not 100% sure, but I believe the total extra charges (tax and service fees) on hotel rooms in Thailand is 17%. Many hotel booking sites use that model - the rate they cite you on the initial screen is always without the extra charges.

 

Evil

The government (must) want everyone to book online, this way they get the tax. I have heard this is why it is often cheaper to book online than a walk in price.

 

Agoda now has quite a lot of guest houses on there now. Call in any one of these in Pattaya and you get a good price and tax is never mentioned but has to be paid on all websites.

Having used Agoda several times within Thailand, I now always telephone the hotel direct to get a comparative cost.

 

The only good thing with Agoda is the points.

Yes I agree.

I hate that Agoda does not tell you the complete price until you hit book.

This is why I refuse to use them.

 

Rock up to the hotel and you will get a better rate.

If you don't then move onto another place.

 

(That is assuming that it is not peak season and everywhere is full)

I've used agoda 3x and everytime it was trouble, i'll never use them again

 

I've used booking.com hundreds of times to book hotels allover Asia and Europe and never had a problem and always the best prices