Agoda.om

I would like to make people aware of Agoda's scamming tactics when booking either hotels or flights. In February I cancelled a hotel booking with Free Cancellation. It was for 2 night's hotel room from 4th - 6th October. However Agoda proceeded to fraudulently take the full amount of the booking - £111 on 5th October. I then spent several days sending numerous emails and several phone calls, whereupon different Agoda Customer Service agents responded to each one, all sent me around in circles with a variety of excuses and subterfuge: - claiming that Agoda had not taken any money, that I had made the booking under a different account, that my email address had changed and they would only deal with my inquiry if I responded using this email, and lastly (unbelievably) that I had made TWO bookings - for the same dates and for the same amount - for TWO people! Obviously these tactics are aimed to wear you down so you're forced to eventually give up dealing with them - not one person at Agoda Customer Service would resolve the issue for me. After 4 days of jumping through hoops and getting absolutely nowhere I was forced to concede defeat which is exactly what they aim for. I have filed a dispute with my credit card against Agoda and awaiting a decision from them! Belatedly I have now become aware of the dozens of negative reviews on sites such as Trustpilot and Google, many of which echo my horrendous experience. Many people have arrived at hotels paid for during lockdown only to find the hotels closed, often late at night and being left stranded. Others have found that their hotel or flight bookings have been cancelled by Agoda. All of them have then had a similar nightmare trying to resolve the issue and to receive a refund, mostly unsuccessfully. The Agoda headquarters are based in Singapore so are probably not subject to UK consumer laws! I had not hitherto used Agoda and had no inkling that they engage in fraudulent sharp practices. It's a lesson to be learnt the hard way! I would therefore strongly advise everyone to steer well clear and use other reputable sites like Expedia or Hotels.com - it's really not worth the risk of losing your money booking with Agoda!