Agoda has very reliable services if you ask me. I have been using them for quite some time already, for local and overseas hotel. All bookings went thru with no issues at all.

I usually call and double confirm with the hotel few days before my check in date, no matter what booking method I used. But so far no issues and all booking were confirmed.

I recently booked with Agoda for my Japan trip next month.
As usual, they will charge in full straight away. When I was booking the rooms, I was given a choice for the same room - 1 with free cancellation but more expensive and the other 1 was much cheaper but clearly stated that it will charge US$15 if we cancelled. Due to the weather conditions, we decided to not go to certain parts of Japan and had to cancel the room. So had to pay the US$15.

But point is, I was clearly informed about it.