Dear readers,
The following happened to me yesterday. On Sunday, August 25, we arrive in Bangkok. For the 5th or 6th time, hotel Urbana Langsuan caught our eye. We had been keeping an eye on the price of a 4-person room for some time via various booking sites. Now it was somewhat disappointing.
Now yesterday I came to the Agoda site via Trivago and there I came across a price of around € 340,00. That was the price we paid approximately the last time (via bookings.com) for 3 nights. It was a non-refundable booking. But since we're definitely going anyway, that didn't seem like a problem to me. We've done it more often. Everything filled in and paid via my Mastercard. When I saw the final amount there, I was shocked. Agoda has the prices per night on their site; bookings.com indicates the prices per room. So in total I had to pay € 3 340,00 times. More than € 1000,00 for 3 nights!
Of course it's my own stupid mistake. Within 3 minutes I was on the phone with Agoda. They could already see my booking in their system, but could no longer help me to cancel my booking. I had to call the hotel myself. Extra set the alarm to get up at 4.00:9.00 am to be able to call the hotel at XNUMX:XNUMX am Thai time. There I got a nice lady on the phone, but unfortunately she couldn't help me either.
Agoda had to call the hotel…. Grrrrr. They just told me otherwise. I called back to Agoda. I had to wait a while and in the meantime they would call the hotel. I was told that the manager of the hotel's reservations department was on leave until Monday and that I would then hear back if I could still cancel my booking. So I am now purely dependent on the leniency of the hotel. Now we come here, as said for the 5th or 6th time. So are pretty loyal guests. You can expect some leniency. I would like to make a new booking for 3 nights. But the price offered to me is absurd, isn't it? € 340,00 per night? It's a great hotel, but the price is out of proportion. Moreover, I really just made a mistake and tried to correct this within a few minutes.
What would you advise me to do now? I should receive an email from the hotel on Monday. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I'm afraid the answer will be negative. All suggestions are welcome. Otherwise I would have thrown away a euro or € 600 to € 700.
Our holiday starts with a big hangover........
Kind regards,
twin
Twan, I also fear a negative answer next Monday, but if I were you I would call the credit card company like hell and explain that a mistake has been made in a booking, and if they can therefore reverse the payment like hell .
Good luck…
William gives excellent advice. Call Mastercard as soon as possible and they should refund the amount. At least that's my experience.
suc6
I would be surprised if in this case Mastercard reversed the payment without Agoda's consent. In itself, a valid transaction has taken place and you cannot undo it unilaterally. The booking conditions are clear about that. It seems to me that you depend on the leniency of Agoda after all........
So this is the risk of non-refundable hence the cheaper price.
If you have a continuous travel insurance, you may be able to do something with this, and credit cards are generally not difficult to refund.
My experience with Agoda has always been good, I sometimes booked the wrong date, which I could easily change online.
By the way, it is also very stupid because if you pay before you start using your credit card details, you will see the total amount very clearly. Here you will also see that there are some additional costs. You will also be asked if you want to pay in bath or in euros. Bath is usually cheaper at agoda than.
Greetings and good luck would still call agoda one more time.
I know that for some destinations, Agoda also accepts that you cancel the entire booking. You will then only have to pay a small amount for administration costs. I would take a look at the conditions of your hotel to see if this hotel is also part of it.
Success with it,
regards cor duran
In that case it is usually mentioned with the offer in question, 'free cancellation', for example. You often also see that there is a difference in price for bookings with or without cancellation option.
What I don't understand is why this mistake happened. Before you give your final approval for the payment via your credit card, is the total amount shown? Or were you just sleeping?
So I think there is nothing more that can be done. Unless the hotel is lenient.
I just made a test booking with both Agoda and booking.com and Agoda clearly indicates that the price per night is ex. service tax and barrel. Booking.com clearly indicates that the price per number of nights includes service tax and vat. When you proceed to booking, the total amount is clearly stated. This booking will be done quickly to save money. I just want to say that all booking sites, including booking a flight, look different. So look carefully before confirming. The one who happened to this has nothing to do with this, but it does for the future. Reclaiming money from the credit card company seems to me to be the best solution.
Simulated this booking myself on the Agoda website and it is striking that they work with large and small letters and numbers in the booking overview.
The price of 319,44 appears larger and in bold in the booking overview. On a second line it says in smaller font and between brackets “per night”
On a third line, in an even smaller font and between brackets, it reads “3 nights for 958,33 euros”.
So if you do not go through everything, only the price of 319,44 euros stands out.
However, the fact remains that with every internet payment you have to go through everything carefully before you give a payment agreement!
I myself have already made a few bookings in Thailand with Agoda and I could always count on a correct service.
If you pay via Paypal you will never have any problems because insurance is available !!!The safest and best website in the world and easiest !!!
I will never book through Agoda again
The prices are indicated without the service costs, etc. So you have to pay +/- 18% more.
So watch out!
Gerrit
Totally agree with the previous comment (always book yourself via booking.com, super service, although I don't know if they could have done anything about it in this case).
Moderator: Please respond to the reader's question.
Dear Twan,
For this reason I have decided not to book through Agoda anymore but through Booking.com
We had been to Chiang Mai for a weekend and experienced the same thing, but I noticed it just before I agreed.
We were 4 people at the Mecure hotel, and we were not known there. although we were able to show confirmation ourselves. Luckily they still had rooms available.
After that always, to the great satisfaction, everything arranged with Booking.com.
greetings Nico
Bangkok
Good Morning,
Not being aware of a reservation at a hotel can also be due to the hotel. The reservation can come in through various channels (read: telephone, fax, email, directly in the reservation system). However, human work is always involved. Either the reservation must be entered manually (fax, tel, email) or accepted in the hotel system. Unfortunately, mistakes are often made with this…. This seems to be the fault of Agoda or bookings etc but assume that if you receive a confirmation the hotel has also received one. Greeting
I usually book through Agoda, occasionally direct and have never had any problems. An extra night or a night less, no problem
I even got money back 1 time, because we preferred another hotel and that 2 weeks before departure.
We booked 1 time through Agoda. The price did not match the price as stated on the site.
I have been in contact with agoda thailand and after much insistence we have been reimbursed the costs minus a fee.
Now we only book through booking.com
Here you can clearly see the conditions and also the possibility to cancel. You can arrange this yourself quickly and easily.
The disadvantage of booking.com is that hotels and guesthouses post photos etc that are more beautiful than reality.
So they do not check the information
Sorry, but it is now being pretended that it is a problem for Agoda, while Twan himself has agreed to the payment.
It is a fact that on every booking site, whether it concerns a hotel room or a plane ticket, you have to read carefully what it says in order not to suddenly be charged unexpected costs. When you have arranged everything, there is the moment of payment… I have already booked tickets and rooms on many different sites, but the amount to be paid is clearly stated at every moment of payment! And if it is in and otherwise, you cancel the booking and just look elsewhere.
It's just sloppy with your credit card if you just mindlessly click through.
If the booking is canceled out of leniency, Twan is lucky, but in my opinion the hotel or Agoda need not do that because this booking was deliberately made by a too casual Twan.
Greetings,
Ingrid
When I read through the responses like this, there are people who have no experience with Adoga but also give advice, such as calling the company via your credit card to request a refund. Is advice in my opinion.
Jan.D
Hallo,
If you go to the hotel's own site and supposedly book a room so you can move on, you can find the hotel's conditions and how to cancel at the bottom of the site. I've seen that they have to do it with a certain sentence. Good luck!!!
I still want to respond to Marianne. But of course I know all too well that I made the stupid mistake myself. I'm more concerned that I was on the phone with Agoda within 3 minutes and that they already say, no sorry, you can't cancel anymore. I find that really customer unfriendly and ridiculous.
In the case of the large hotel chains, such as Accor, it is also the case that the cheapest rates can be booked via their own websites.
So on agoda, Booking, Hotelsnl etc you always pay more.
Accor includes Ibis, Ibis Styles (formerly AllSeasons), Novotel, Mercure, Sofitel etc.
Here are a lot of beautiful and beautifully located hotels in Thailand. In addition, there are regular specials, called hot deals. http://www.accorhotels.com I have often booked through them.
Other major chains will work in a similar way.
With STIP at the top of the list = http://www.booking.com The advantage is that the indicated price is the final price and that you can cancel for FREE with 90% of the reservations until very shortly before arrival and that you only pay at the destination hotel. So you pay NOTHING directly to booking.com. (one only has credit cards data, in case of NO SHOW, HOTEL will charge you 1 day . .
Price comparison site: http://www.trivago.nl last minute prices bijo.a.: http://www.wotif.com
success
hoi
I have been booking with Agoda for a long time and never had a problem
yet the price is shown per night
although I wonder if you have already been to the hotel, do you know something about the price of the hotel ???
ok everyone makes a mistake i thought you have 14 days for distance selling??don't wait and do something with it quickly
try to get your money back from credit card
See above many advice to request the money back from the credit card company. Why should they return money belonging to Agoda under a legal agreement between the cardholder and Agoda? As long as Agoda does not agree to a cancellation, no refund will be made………
An error must be correctable.
And the best solution is to give leniency to these people.
If AGODA does not do this, there are other sites that are more lenient.
And the name AGODA must continue with its business.
BM
Shame to pay that.
I would talk to the hotel manager.
Thai people are not as hard and show more understanding than us.
I think it's a good starting point to open the conversation you've had several times
have visited this hotel, take your previous payments with you if necessary.
If it doesn't work, I'll hear it, I do know a small mouth of Thai.
And never work with AGODA, I have had bad experiences with them myself.
I don't like the fact that you have to pay immediately.
booking. com I have had good experiences and are very flexible.
Bernard
I have been booking all my hotels with Agoda for 5 years (every holiday of 3 months, about 8 different hotels) every year other destinations, including other hotels, never had any problems with Agoda, check the booking conditions before booking. Already booked several times and then canceled is no problem at all, provided the booking conditions allow it. No problems with the redemption of the saved points, always able to hand in and neatly settled.
Advice when booking, but that applies to all booking sites, before you give permission for payment, check everything carefully.
Booked a hotel on Koh Chang not so long ago through Agoda. Prices were clearly stated on the website. Prices per night and if service costs would be added, it was clearly stated. The final amount was clearly stated at checkout. Agoda cannot be blamed. Of course anyone can be wrong. But don't put the blame on Agoda, the only thing you can try is to persuade them to be lenient. I don't think you can expect anything from the credit card company. They will have to receive an order from Agoda for a possible chargeback.
My experiences with Agoda are basically good, although I have noticed in the past that there are quite a few additional costs (I don't know if that is still the case). I always compare the hotel site itself and that is sometimes cheaper or has better conditions such as free wifi or free breakfast. I have never seen such a big price difference as Twan mentions. At my regular hotel in bkk I always send an email asking if I can book the room again for the same price as last year (much cheaper than via their own recently set up website or Agoda) to which they answer in the affirmative. Also pay attention: at some sites / hotels you have to take a dinner during New Year's Eve (whether you come or not) which is quite expensive for Thai standards.
@Bernardo, how could I get in touch with you? I understand that you could or would like to help me if I can't figure it out. That would be very nice, because I don't speak a word of Thai. Do you live in Thailand yourself; in BKK maybe?
Foreign. If I make a test booking on Agode from Sunday, August 25 to Wednesday, August 28, a total price of 2 euros including service costs and tax will be charged for two 388,88-person executive rooms. Then it cannot be the case that almost 1000 euros have to be paid for one quadruple room.
Good news to close this topic! I have been in contact with the hotel Urbana Lang Suan. I had previously sent them an extensive email. The hotel has been in contact with Agoda and apparently they also realized that the € 1.000,00 was very disproportionate. I will be refunded about 50% of my paid amount.
Great job from the hotel. Thanks for all the responses to my post. And next time I will really pay more attention, but I will go back to my trusted bookings.com. 🙂
Moderator: Due to excessive use of points, your comment is illegible.
Congratulations TWAN.
I don't have to commit anymore.
Maybe my option had contributed to it.
There were also harsh reactions, such as you have to watch out.
But those are people who think they can't make mistakes.
Unfortunately I could not have given my e-mail address this way because of
privacy
Greetings from Bernardo