Agoda.com: A Detailed Review
Agoda.com – great for Asian travel?
We have recently advocated booking.com and Airbnb as our main go-to sites for booking accommodation. However, we have been told by many in the know that Agoda is worth a look when booking accommodation in Asia. We haven’t had the chance to use them as of yet, but are due to start our exploration of Asia next year. Therefore, we decided to look in detail at Agoda.com. We’ll subject it to the same rigorous reviews that we have given the other sites.
As we haven’t booked with them yet, this review will be based on the site itself. That includes its options for searching, ease of use, and other features. We are intrigued to hear from those of you that have used Agoda, as to whether the customer service was up to scratch. Please do let us know your experiences with Agoda, both good and bad.
Agoda is available in a massive thirty nine languages. It is clear that they aim to make things easy for a large number of people, rather than just English speakers. You can also choose to pay in many different currencies. We always suggest that you pay in the currency of the country you are purchasing from, to avoid your card company charging an extra conversion fee.
The site benefits from 24/7 customer service, which is always a brilliant thing. There is not much worse than being stranded in a far-off land, and not being able to contact a site if there is a problem. It appears that you should avoid this with Agoda.
Agoda doesn’t just sell hotel rooms
You can book all different kinds of accommodation with Agoda. This includes hotels, bed and breakfasts, seaside resorts, rest houses and homestays. The pricing system seems to result in low prices. Their ‘best price guarantee’ means that you should be assured of the best rate possible without doing too much shopping around.
As is usual for sites of this type, you receive a confirmation e-mail when booking. You can also log into your account on the site to see your upcoming reservations. They offer a Self Service section of the site, where you can do common changes all by yourself. These include cancellations, amendments, and sending special requests.
There are a few downsides to the site that we have found. The main one is that prices shown do not include tax and service charges, which can result in misleading pricing. To avoid this, select ‘total price per night’ under the price display. The other is that you have to pay on booking. This is a rather minor inconvenience, apart from when you might need to cancel. We assume it would be more of a hassle at that point.
In conclusion, Agoda seems to be an easy-to-use, and attractive website. Many people have said that it is the very best place to book accommodation in Asia. We will certainly be trying it out when we plan our own trip to Asia for next year. Their best price guarantee shows their confidence in their low rates. Give it a go!
Have you used Agoda.com? Please share your experiences in the comments.
