booking.com prices is cheaper than agoda actually.
i used to book with agoda.com but have switched to booking.com for my past 6 or 7 holidays.

agree with that...found booking.com is better..

I love booking.com too :-)

lov it got a great deal to kelantan during this raya

You going to Kelantan ? hehe

Make sure you get the room that u booked for. For my case, (last week), i booked a room thru booking.com for my stay in dublin. The booking slip stated that I got a room with a street view. When reaching the hotel, got my keys, enter the room and i found out they gave me rooftop view (means no view!) room.. I ask them again why I didnt get as per booked, they said the street view price is different and more exp. Dont want to argue, i just shut up and take the room since i'm extremely tired from my long flights and wanted to sleep so badly..

I just made a booking for a hotel in Guangzhou yesterday via Booking.com and this morning they charge 50% deposit to my credit card. Is this normal? When I booked, it says that no prepayment is required and pay when we stay.

No. I also booked my Sydney hotel via Booking.com last mth - No prepayment or deposit at all

Thanks. I've emailed booking.com to check and see what they say.
I booked a total of 3 different hotels in China via Booking.com yesterday and none of them has charged my card, only this particular one. Have not encounter any hotels that will charge my card before when I book thru booking.com the past few years. This is the first time the hotel has charge and the check in date is like almost half a year away. -.-

I have booked via booking.com b4 and they charged me for prepayment (100%). So is very much depends what "terms" of conditions that you have chosen during booking.

Did the terms there said prepayment needed? I understand that they will charge if the hotel need a deposit for the booking. But usually they will state clearly when we book.

Thing is, the hotel that I booked, under the room conditions there put "• FREE cancellation, pay when you stay".

Same terms "FREE cancellation, pay when you stay" was written for my booking. In order to entitle for the cheapest rate , booking.com usually charge us 1st.

Yes I do understand that they will charge deposit if its needed. Those conditions will put "Pre-pay your stay for less ".

Do you mean that even when they stated "pay when you stay", they will still charge a deposit sometimes? That's very misleading considering that other hotels got room conditions that stated "prepay for less".

I usually book with booking.com because of the free cancellation policy. Prepay on booking.com usually means if we cancel or change the booking, then 1st night will be charge in full.

Quite confusing. Just wait for booking.com to reply you then.

at first i have the same doubt about booking.com, not sure whether i'm booking is confirmed... i took a step further to email the hotels directly to confirm, so far all of them have my booking, so i'll just print out the individual hotel's email confirmation just in case

So I spoke to booking.com and their reply as below:

My credit card company SMS inform me that it was "charged". Hence the confusion. Spoke to the credit card company again today and they confirm the amount is blocked, not charged. This is a first for me after booking with them for so long, so just sharing if it ever happens to anyone out there as well.


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I have just made one reservation through booking.com and it only requested the credit card number and expiry date. It is stated that the credit card is only used as a guarantee and not for immediate payment.

Few minutes later, I received an email from booking.com that the hotel is not able to process my credit card to secure my reservation.



While I am pretty sure I have entered my credit card details correctly the first time, I give it benefits of doubt and selected the first option, which is to reenter my card details. This time, I have to enter my credit card number, name and also the CVC code.

I am curious on why they need the CVC code for the second time, but not during the initial reservation?

I've used booking[dot]com numerous times without trouble.

In fact, once i sent an email complaint and within a few hours, one of their customer service reps called me from overseas.

I think the call was more expensive than 1night's accommodation that i booked.

booked with bookings.com for all of my trips to thailand (krabi twice, bangkok, hatyai). so far so good, and the payment whether 100% or not is based on what the terms and conditions of that particular hotel is. stated on the section before you make payment.

the thing about bookings is that some hotels that is on Agoda, isn't available on Bookings.. so i guess you'll have to really survey before placing your bookings~

Super reliable. Never disappoint me in any way.
For the past 3 year I have travelled to many countries, I have used only booking.com. Agoda has hidden charges which I don't like personally and booking.com gives the cheapest price of all.