lucky u understand... some will start cursing at the site.

oh by the way, do take note on the nationality requirement.
for certain nationality, hotel room can be cheaper in some countries.

Agoda is very much trustable.
U can also try Hotelclub.net

Hi,

Previously, I had booked hotels with Asiarooms, Bookings.com and Laterooms before. For those hotels that comes with the word "free cancellation", they had never charge my credit card even upon confirmed booking. Basically they only obtain information using the credit card and will only charge if we failed to show up at the hotel or cancel the booking within the time given.

Recently I had tried new websites - Hotels.com and Agoda for booking hotel for Hong Kong. Both came with the word "Free Cancellation" but to my horror, in the itinerary they sent to me, it says "You'll be charged with full amount" A call to credit card bank confirmed this that there's a full amount charges pending to be charged in a few working days. In the end I cancelled both booking.

Now my question is: is it because it's a basic rule for Hong Kong hotels to get full payment, nothing to do with the booking website policy? I mean, if I'm going to book again using Asiarooms, will I encounter the same problem?

Or it's only the policy of Agoda and Hotels.com to charge full payment upon booking?

This post has been edited by fraulein: Feb 13 2012, 10:36 PM

my experience with Agoda so far is that all bookings are charged once made, so i guess its depends on the website.

and if its free cancellation, whats the issue with being charged beforehand ? I had made and cancel multiple bookings before there and everytime I got back the exact full amount without hassle.

I don't want the hassle (or drama) of chasing for my payments after this. Somewhere in travel forums (I remember it's tripadvisor) there are some travellers mentioned about the hassle to get back their payment after paying in full despite "free cancellation" but I think it's other booking website. Basically because the booking website, once got your CC details, will send them to the hotel. And in this case, the hotel refused to refund or stall the refund process while the booking website washed its hands off the matter because it's a situation between traveller and the hotel.

This post has been edited by fraulein: Feb 13 2012, 11:06 PM

tips, you may book hotel via OTA if they are cheaper than hotel itself, then after received confirmation from OTA, you may call hotel to verify your booking, but wait at least 1 or 2 days after received confirmation, before calling hotel.

how many of you book agoda but end up unable to confirm room, but not being offer help or option for other hotel?

my colleague booked from www.my.pyotravel.com, his preferred hotel was unable to confirm but this OTA give other choices for him to choose, either same price or top up a bit for better hotel or better rooms.

so no matter how big or small an OTA, service is matter to us, coz we don't want to end up in somewhere without room to check-in.

So far using agoda, I hv no problem wth uncomfirmed room.
The only things I hate them bcos the ever incresing admin & tax added into the advertised room rate..

i hate it when advertised room rate exclude tax&fee, have to go till the end to see the final price.

Anyway, their final price on overall still cheaper than the total for so many other websites.. well not all and depending on diff cities..for eg.. I booked the cheapest using agoda for China hotels compare to other such as hotel.com, booking.com & asiarooms but when comes to Tokyo, I found out hotel.com cheaper after all tax/admin added..sigh

coz different agency have their own focus product and contracting rate.

we have to be savvy and always compare

like i posted before, use HotelsCombined. U'll get the rate in nett including everything, even for rate from Agoda.

I stil confuse regarding the currency selection. I know some website only charge USD. But for those like Hotel.com and agoda, they got option selection. If I select RM, so my CC will charge only RM? or they still charged us USD base on on their RM convert to USD.
I dun like agao now a days bcoz I dun have number of ppl selection. Some time u see the rate is wah so nice, sekali select is only for one person. Is wasting my time to select on the search result. Booking.com is kinda very strict forward, but price still can't match agoada and hotels.com.

even though the site has currency option, as long as the payment gateway is in usd, they will charge in usd. then exchange rate comes into play, usually bank's rate slightly higher.

if worry then buy from local OTA, this pyo travel is local co

I suggest you use HotelsCombined.com. Compare prices on 100's of hotel booking sites at once.

This post has been edited by bongkol: Feb 27 2012, 11:01 AM

agree. when i 2nd time buy with agoda, buy itu ruemz hotel, when pay i dint see properly terus click pay, then only notice why so mahal.

if price is higher i shud kasi terus stay other hotel liao

anyway, i like it is that can get points then can rebate in the future. I bought using agoda twice nia, 3 nites (or isit 4) in Hong Kong, 2 nites at ruemz already can rebate around RM100 or so...haha

if you're an frequent traveler, and use agoda often, then the points are worth it before it expires... also bear in mind there's minimum points before you can redeem them, i burn a few thousand points bcos of that.

anyway... for my upcoming Bali trip, I realize Agoda is no longer cheap after adding in all of the misc fees
now I'm using Booking.com for the rooms, as it shows the total nett price, and it's cheaper than agoda.
Not sure about rooms for other country tho..

last time i bought from hotelclub, the points expired before i can use it.

therefore, i dont like points system. unless it doesn't expire

Stimix, just wana ask when booking at agoda for 5 days staying is the tax shown is total or just for 1 day? THX

The tax is per day but diff hotel & diff countries diff rate wan can be as cheap as US$2 till US$15!/nite/room

Ok. But how bout the cancellation? May i know how long they normally refund the money? I just booked it a day ago but decided to take on the other one....