I know agora is good but the hotel I'm looking for is not listed in agoda.. But I booked through tripadvisor.. But I don't have to pay anything until I reached there, so I'm not sure whether it's valid or not..

contact the hotel directly to see if they received the booking or not.

Tried agoda once when i travel to singapore. Booked 3 days before check in for 3 nights stay. Really convenient for me, especially when I go to the hotel counter and they asked for my passport. Straight away they recognized my booking.

The only problem with agoda is not all hotel was listed there.

agoda double charged me on one booking. already email them but no feedbacks yet.
i wander whether they offeer refund.

If it is double charged, they will do the refund. Give them 1-2 days to reply your email

Use agoda to see what are the current offers for a hotel, then go to that hotel's official website and compare their rates. Do they match? Does the hotel's website offer similar/cheaper promo?

Prev CNY holiday, I booked via hotel's website after checking out agoda's price promo, and it was legit, infact the hotel's website was rm10 cheaper.. and prior to check-in, the hotel staff whatsapp me bfast/lunch/dinner buffet additional offer (20-50% off from normal price)..

Inb4 Copthorne Hotel (prev known as Equatorial) located at Brinchang. Love the place

This post has been edited by futra: Feb 28 2014, 05:29 PM

My experience is that official hotel websites are slightly more expensive than agoda. I normally will go through agoda first because (1) it allows me to collect points which can be converted to rebate (2) it has more choices and reviews. Must read reviews to know how good/bad the listed hotels/hostels are. IMO

agoda is great, it has some great deals, i've got 40% off deals before from agoda. But as a smart consumer be sure to look at other websites as well.

for my upcoming trip to phuket, i manage to book a hotel for 200RM per night, where as the official website and other booking website charges almost RM300. Agoda had a 30% discount deal. Nevertheless don't forget to look at others as well. Normally my workflow for hotel booking is,

1) Go to agoda.com, shortlist hotels . Normally i see the picture looks nice and according to my price range.
2) Look up hotel in tripadvisor.com, see the reviews, and if you punch in the dates you'll be able to compare prices from diff websites like booking.com, expedia, blablabla.
3) Look at the official website too, get price.
4) Then decide !

This post has been edited by db07mufan: Mar 1 2014, 10:54 AM

If you're a member of Agoda, you can redeem the rewarding points that you have earned with each of your booking and also the feedback rewarding points given to you immediately during your next booking. This kind of benefit I didn't see so far in any online hotel booking. That's caused me a pure Agoda supporter whenever I need to book for local or oversea hotel.

How does the "Book now & pay nothing until xxx" works? Does that mean my credit card will only be charged on that specified date? What happens if I want to cancel it?

cancellation and book now pay nothing are two different things. for cancellation, you need to check the cancellation policy whether its free cancellation, or there is a cancellation fee involved.

Checked and yup there seems to be a $15 cancellation fee.
Thanks.

Anyone paid / redeemed using their rewards points before?
I guess the points worth very little.

I did. Twice so far after years using them. Each time ~US$12.50. Most of the points earned from the review after my stay. I think ~500 points for each review

The minimum redeemable point is 12,500 for $25.

I have redeemed them twice too and yeah, don't forget to do the review

Hi, yes I did. Every 12,500 points will be allowed to redeem, each of the feedback you given to Agoda will be rewarded with 500 points.
I found it's quite worth for exchange if you're a traveller that loves to book hotel through online services.

Basically I have used it for years, hence would like to share and recommend for everyone as well.

This post has been edited by xiongling85: Mar 12 2014, 09:57 AM

hotel review submissions no longer earn 500 points.

rugi 2500 points!!

yeah, i just realized this too.. dont need to submit review to agoda anymore

rugi ler..i was expecting to get 2500 points, just enough to redeem..now i am short of bout 2000 points and it is going to expire end of this year..

I just realized it when I check on my review that I posted a month ago.

No points awarded! Hmm.. When did agoda stop this review points?