Be Careful on Agoda!

[Arnie85]

Never had a problem with booking.com

[ricktoronto]

On 23/03/2019 at 05:56, Gibsons1 said:

I had to contact Agoda again as their charges still posted to my Credit Card.  What a cluster fuck.

The mistake I see is someone paying the full amount for a hotel in advance. Why would you do that? The normal process is to make a reservation, understand the 24-48 hours cancel policy, guarantee the arrival/first night. Pay in advance? That's crazy talk.

[Gibsons1]

5 hours ago, ricktoronto said:

The mistake I see is someone paying the full amount for a hotel in advance. Why would you do that? The normal process is to make a reservation, understand the 24-48 hours cancel policy, guarantee the arrival/first night. Pay in advance? That's crazy talk.

Dude, both had cancellation policies until May but they charged me right away for one. The mistake was booking on Agoda and having others write in with poor comprehension of what happened.

There's a large difference between $40 CDN and $40 US.  Anyone with Toronto in their name should know that.  I also have no need to pay for exchange rates TWICE the way they work it.

[j_d66]

6 hours ago, ricktoronto said:

The mistake I see is someone paying the full amount for a hotel in advance. Why would you do that? The normal process is to make a reservation, understand the 24-48 hours cancel policy, guarantee the arrival/first night. Pay in advance? That's crazy talk.

What's crazy about it.  If a hotel is offering a good discount for a stay I see nothing wrong with making a future hotel guest commit to the reservation.  Almost all promotions come with strings attached.  In nearly every booking they offer you the ability to reserve on a non refundable basis or pay more and have the ability to pay later and cancel the reservation.  I see nothing wrong with those options. 

I like that Agoda sets out the different pricing options for you.  I have taken enough trips to Thailand and track my hotel costs from trip to trip that I pretty much know if I am getting a decent price or if I should wait for better pricing.

When many of us travel to places like Thailand we know where we are going and how long we will be there and locking things like  places to stay and in country flights early not only tends to save some money but allows you to stay where you want and travel on your time rather than being left with whats available.   I find it kinda nice to know that a portion of your trip has already been paid for before you go.

[j_d66]

22 hours ago, Gibsons1 said:

Dude, both had cancellation policies until May but they charged me right away for one. The mistake was booking on Agoda and having others write in with poor comprehension of what happened.

There's a large difference between $40 CDN and $40 US.  Anyone with Toronto in their name should know that.  I also have no need to pay for exchange rates TWICE the way they work it.

We are not saying that an error was not made because no doubt something didn't work the way you were hoping it would.

But there is some skepticism as to what really went wrong.  Agoda gives you several options and it would be very easy to book a selection that is different than what one thought it was.  I have been guilty of that myself in selecting the pay now option when I thought I was selecting the pay later option but it all becomes crystal clear to me when that email comes a few seconds later telling me what they think I selected and what I really selected.

If all of this really happened the way you said it did than post the details of the booking that currently resides both in your email as well as your Agoda account

For example this is a booking I made where I paid a booking in full both in usd and that's what should hit the card as well  No conversion

The difference in what was charged to my card was some rewards that I applied .

and one where i book now in thai baht and pay later on a specific date.  Now I realize that what I am ultimately going to pay is going to be based on the market rate when they charge my account so it will end up being different but I am not getting ripped off since I am taking a chance on what the conversion rate will be at the  time I am charged not when I book which is totally fair in my mind.

 

In both cases it leaves little doubt how I actually booked that reservation.

It seems that part of your beef is with what the conversion was and that very well may end up being an issue with how your credit card deals with the conversion.  Some cards bake in a pretty good fee for making that conversion where others charge nothing.  I use a card that doesn't charge a fee so I know what hits my card will be within a few cents of what the market rate is.

If you want to make believers out of us than show us some proof of what you say happened.

Mistakes are made every day

[Gibsons1]

CAD at the top, that's US funds at the bottom.  Show me where it differentiates it?  It's $44 CDN on the app but $29 on my desktop.  I usually book on my desktop...

Agoda's ripping people off. 

I booked for $41 CDN on Expedia.  So where are the deals???

[j_d66]

20 hours ago, Gibsons1 said:

CAD at the top, that's US funds at the bottom.  Show me where it differentiates it?  It's $44 CDN on the app but $29 on my desktop. 

Dude please tell me your not that stupid. 

What you are showing is not what the price will be.  You are showing something that is caught up in your browser cache and is not reflective of current pricing  for the date you want to stay.   Once you get to the page for the actual hotel and date you are searching you see the actual price.  Like you did after you hit the update button

Agoda allows you to search based on on base price per night or total price per night

 

On my search it came up with $44 CDN which happens to be $44 CDN all in

 

 

I was referring to the details of your situation where you said they actually charged you incorrectly.

If you think that  a $3 difference in a room price from one booking engine to another is ripping off the customer than so be it and by all means choose the one that gives you the best deal but that is hardly the case and has little to do with your prior claims of how you said Agoda did you wrong.  Do a google search and you will see multiple different prices for the same place on the same day.

[Gibsons1]

30 minutes ago, Gibsons1 said:

 

Ok mods, kill the thread.  Maybe I fucked up, maybe I got a better deal on Expedia.  At this point, it's moot.