Agoda Review 2024

[eafl id=”100000416″ name=”Agoda” text=”Agoda”] is one of the most popular online booking sites in Asia and I use it along with Airbnb whenever I travel.

It’s easy to find hotels, apartments, condos and hostels for a reasonable price no matter which city you stay in. For years, I used Booking.com but have started using Agoda because you can pay with Paypal.

If you are a freelancer or earn some of your income online, using Agoda makes finding a place to stay much easier and simple.

In this review, I’m going to review the pros and cons of using Agoda versus other major booking sites.

Why Use Agoda?

Whenever you travel to a new city or country, you must find a clean and safe place to sleep on your very first night. This is especially difficult if your flight arrives late at night and you suddenly find yourself in a brand new city after dark.

Agoda usually lists over 200+ places to stay depending on which city you are currently in. This not only saves you a lot of time, but let’s you compare similar rooms side by side. They also list all the amenties and key information you need to make an honest decision about a room.

How to Use Agoda

Head over to [eafl id=”100000416″ name=”Agoda” text=”Agoda.com”] and enter your current location, checkin date and number of guests.

Next, Agoda will show you a list of recommended rooms but I prefer to sort the results from lowest to highest price by clicking the “Price low to high” feature.

Why? Because you can sometimes find excellent rooms for up to 80% off. These hidden gems get buried in the recommended results but you will easily find them once you sort by price.

To further refine your results, use the sorting options on the left hand size to filter listings based on price, amenties, facilities, and property types. You can quickly search for hotels under $50 per night or find cheap hostels without going through every search result manually.

Tips on How to Find Rooms Using Agoda

Here’s a few key tips on how to properly use Agoda so you get the best value for your money:

  • Use flexible dates: Friday and Saturdays are the hardest days to book while you can find hidden deals if you are flexible with your dates.
  • Book low rates for several days: If you find a low rate, try to extend your booking for as long as possible. The same room may be much more expensive tomorrow.
  • Try hostels for late night bookings: If you arrive in a city well after midnight (12AM) then it makes no sense to spend a lot of money when you have to check out at 12pm the next day. Spend a night in a hostel to save money then book a more expensive room later.
  • Try 5am to 7am for the lowest prices: If you wake up early in the morning, you will find the best Agoda deals while nobody else is awake. The worst time to book a room is around 12pm (it’s very close to checkout times).

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Is Agoda reliable?

Yes. I have been using Agoda for my bookings and have experienced zero problems finding, booking and staying in rooms.

Is Agoda safe?

Agoda uses SSL security to protect your information and does a great job of keeping your credit card & paypal information stored in a secure manner.

Is Agoda trusted?

Millions of people use Agoda to book hotels and flights on a monthly basis. They are extremely popular in Asia.

Is Agoda legit?

Yes. I can easily book a room without any hassle and show up at the hotel/hostel with zero problems. All you need is the Agoda confirmation email and you are all set to go.

What are the different Agoda payment options?

Agoda accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Paypal.

Does Agoda accept debit cards?

Yes. You can use debit cards to book with Agoda as long as you have enough cash in your balance.

Does Agoda have hidden charges?

No. Agoda charges a 10 to 12% service charge on most bookings. This is standard practice in the online bookings industry. You get a complete breakdown of charges on the “Payment Details” page before you book.

Does Agoda charge a booking fee?

Yes. Agoda adds a 10 to 12% booking fee aka service charge to each booking.

Agoda Pros – Things I Like

  • Easy to navigate website
  • Hundreds of rooms to choose from
  • Accepts all major credit cards and Paypal
  • Simple 4 step booking process
  • Offers coupons and insider deals that save you money
  • Provides simple email confirmation to show at checkin
  • Saves your credit card and paypal information for future use

Agoda Cons – Things I Don’t Like

  • Sometimes it takes a while for the hotel/hostel to receive the confirmation
  • Taxes and service charges add between 10 to 25% more to your costs
  • Prices can be a bit more expensive than Airbnb for similar-type apartments
  • Great deals often have several dozen people viewing them at the same time

My Overall Agoda Rating: 8/10

As an expat, I am always on the lookout for great booking deals because I want a clean and comfortable room at an affordable price. Agoda is one of my favorite online booking websites and I use it a lot while traveling in Asia.

I highly recommend Agoda as a great way to find a good hotel/hostel for a reasonable price.

Ready to book a room? [eafl id=”100000416″ name=”Agoda” text=”Check out Agoda.com now to save up to 80% on your next stay!”]

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22 Comments

  1. I’m traveling internationally and with Covid protocol things have never been more difficult and frustrating. I and about 25 others had issues with paperwork delays causing me to miss my flight to London. This was very difficult and heartbreaking as I had prepaid for a hotel and tickets to events and I wasn’t able to enjoy. I plead with Agoda and Hotel about what happened and the costs associated with the airport and other mishaps. I lost over $1,000 including hotel, airfare, event tickets and other costs that I associated with this situation. I’m now trying to pull together money to try to get back to the US with extreme disappointment. I contributed over $1,000 to London’s economy without ever setting foot and Agoda refused to provide a refund not accepting my impossible situation. I understand policies, but policy can be reconsidered when it comes to situations out of your control. I will provide my review to as many people as possible as I believe Agoda should refund my money due to the circumstances. My communcation through Agoda’s messaging link and phone calls also went unanswered when I was trying to communicate the situation. I also called the hotel directly to advise with no answer.

  2. totally disgusted no phone number on reservation to call
    Hotel has reservation through Priceline but does not come up on Priceline

    With virus shutdown cant get anyone on phone for reservation in 2 days

  3. SITE IS A SCAM – totally takes advantage of people. Despite AGODA confirming that they had received my booking cancellation in plenty of time (one month) AGODA still took money from my account. Telephone number gets you nobody and email goes no where.

    Complete RIP off – beware

  4. I would never use this site again ,due to them publishing pictures of hotel rooms that are not the room you are going to get .after contacting them on numerous occasions sending pictures of proof ,all they want to do is deny the evidence infront of them and blame someone else

  5. I recently booked a hotel through Agoda.com and had a terrible customer service experience and will not use them again. My booking was for FLEXSTAY INN Shirogane in Tokyo Japan.

    I was charged as a NO SHOW because I had received an email from FLEXSTAY stating “We’re sorry, but your request cannot be approved at this time“ and therefore I did not show up to the hotel and booked elsewhere. As I had just been on a 10 hour flight and was going through customs in Japan when receiving the email, I needed to book somewhere else without investigating or phoning as to why “my request could no be approved.” The next day I received a NO SHOW email from Agoda and I emailed them to explain that I received an email from the hotel and therefore didn’t stay at that location.

    Agoda then said they are “merely a booking platform” and that I would have to deal with the hotel and that Agoda could not help me. I then contacted the hotel and asked why I was charged as a NO SHOW when I was emailed by FLEXSTAY saying “We’re sorry, but your request cannot be approved at this time.” According to the hotel they had meant I could not have a non smoking room after the fact but had not mentioned this in the original email.

    I explained to Agoda my situation and each email came from a different customer service agent who said they could not help me as Agoda has a NO SHOW policy and that they are just a booking site. Agoda also stated “We also get your frustration because we are customers as well aside from being one of the teams here in Agoda.”

    Finally Agoda stated “Please note that this decision mainly came from the hotel and we at Agoda do not have any control over their decision.”

    I would not recommend using Agoda as a booking website as there customer service is terrible and they do not try to help make things right for customers.

  6. This is the 1st time I ever made a review about a company, and I decided that this experience I should share with everyone before they make any booking with Agoda. I made a reservation online at Agoda website and select the correct date and number of rooms that i wanted correctly. When i clicked the somehow, the system automatically change the date 1 day earlier to check in and 1 day earlier to check out. I made the 2nd time change to the correct date and then submit the reservation, without knowing, when the transaction submitted, and when i received the email confirmation, I notice the date was wrong. I called Agoda to made the amendment to the correct date immediately and explained to them. They said, my booking is non callable, non refundable. I told them, I did not asked for cancel or refund. but amendment to the correct date. but they said the hotel policy is very strict. I called the hotel. And the hotel explained to me that we can simply call Agoda to change the date. The hotel can not do it, because it is a third party website. Then I called back and try to explain to Agoda what hotel has told me. I spoke with 5 different customer representative at Agoda. No one is willing to help and change. i manage to duplicate the glitch at their website and video the transaction and sent it to them. I even use different computer, and manage to duplicate the glitch that they have. But yet very disappointing, they still refuse to amend my date. How I wished i did not buy from them at the 1st time and checked their review before i do transaction with them. I am totally agree with one of the review. “Please avoid Agoda Hotels at all costs, their integrity, customer support and compensation is terrible.” If i could even give them minus stars. They dont event deserve 1/2 star at all.

  7. I really do not recommend this company… for the second time they tricked us. First we booked through Agoda (Kenya- 27/12) and even though, at the counter, we have been chased by the hotel because they didn’t have received the booking from the channel manager (Agoda’s partner) and there was no room left in Mombasa…We could find a nice african in the street to take care of us. In exchage of this misfortune, they just gave us a gift card of the amount we paid. Last day (today – 27/03) of this gift card, we were about to use and we called the customer service; The gift card was expired because the office which generated this card is in Asia and they are closed… It should depends on my IP… they just refused to give us our gift card back!!

  8. Really poor costumer service! We had a problem wuth a booking we made threw the app. The hotel we bioked looked nothing like the pictures and he was horrible, smelly and inappropriate for use. We booked 2 roomes for 2 couples and we had to take another hotel. We tried to reach agoda by phone and no answer and by mqil neither. O your self a favore and buy with another website, just not agoda!!!

    • SCAM ALERT
      Agoda showed up a cheap fare for a hotel I was interested in and thats why I booked with them
      At no point during the reservation process was I informed about additional fees until to my surprise a got the email confirmation with a cleaning charge double the price of the apartment and a deposit charge that they say will be refunded after checkout.
      Contacted both them and the hotel and they keep pushing responsabilities around trying to fool me.
      BE VERY CAREFUL WITH HIDDEN CHARGES. THEY ARE PROFESSIONAL SCAMMERS.

  9. Initially I was booking a trip though Trip Advisor, but upon payment Agoda came up as the booking agent. Most importantly Agoda BOOKING CONFIRMATION had WRONG DATES! It is IMPOSSIBLE to get the customer service on the phone! In turn received an email saying my booking is NON-REFUNDABLE! Avoid this Agoda site as much as possible. I recon the wrong dates and non-refundable booking terms and conditions are a scam!

  10. I was also charged for a reservation I did not make and have experienced a refusal to confirm my refund. There are obviously issues with this company and the favorable articles written on the travel blogs are by people who have some incentive to write favorably about this.

  11. I had such a negative experience with Agoda recently. Booked a hotel on their website and when I arrived, the hotel said they had never signed a contract with Agoda and my fully paid reservation was considered void!
    Called Agoda up and they promised a refund. That was on 20 June 2018. Until today, no sign of the refund.

    Extremely disappointed with their service. You can be sure that my family and friends will not be using Agoda. Disgusting.

  12. AGODA over charged me!
    They steal money!

    Booking ID # 283044368
    The above booking specifies it’s only US$500 including all taxes.

    But they have charged my credit card US$526.66

    I kept emailing the requesting them
    To Please explain why they have over charged and also asked them to refund the additional charge.

    Nothing!
    No reply!
    Not even admitting to the email!

    It’s illegal to charge something over the agreed amount and AGODA is stealing money!

  13. Please don’t trust on Agoda. Its customer service is awful. They don’t help you practically, they easily cheat you…!

    They cancelled my booking without permission exactly before my travel and only suggested a 50 dollar gift card to me.

  14. Do NOT trust Agoda. They are under credit card fraud investigation because they have withdrawn 5000CAD from my credit card without my knowledge or approval, months after I gave them the details. Never trust them!

  15. I’m completely disgusted with this company. I made a reservation, cancelled it by mistake and called them right away. I explained to them that i was a senior with limited income and they didn’t care! They kept my money!

  16. I am extremely disappointed by the customer service of Agoda. They have taken $2500 without my authorisation, and have sent email confirmation that I have not been charged. I have spent 5 hours on the phone. I’m starting to think that the use the preauthorisation to invest to make profit. They are incompetent thieves! With terrible service. Five different answers from five staff!!no manager call back and day 3 of unauthorised taking of my funds. There is a reason that Booking.com allow direct payment at hotels! I’m posting this just so I can get them to respond to my calls and emails and return the funds that they can’t explain why or how were taken.

  17. I disagree about agoda.com. Booked a hotel with them, checking in the 16th, checking out the 17th. Went to the hotel, and found out AGODA HAD MADE THE RESERVATION FOR DAY-ONLY!!! Meaning, for those of you who are unfamiliar with how agoda rips customers off, that you can only use the room during the day. Apparently if you book a hotel with agoda, the day-only use is AUTOMATICALLY SELECTED!!! You have to FIND THE PLACE TO SELECT THE OPTION TO STAY THE NIGHT. Notice that you have to do this if you book the room to check in one day and check out the next. Who on God’s green earth checks in one day, checks out the next and does NOT spend the night? Absolutely ridiculous. Did agoda give me a refund? Nope! Bandits. Never use this service.
    100% of my agoda.com experiences have been 100% negative. Of course it’s one experience. Why would I do this again?