If you’re planning an epic trip and looking to book some hotels, you’ve probably encountered Agoda. It’s an Asian-based travel agency specializing in hotel bookings.
However, people often have concerns when booking hotels online regarding such websites’ safety, reliability, and trustworthiness.
Travelers often look for the lowest prices when booking hotels, which puts them at risk of getting scammed.
With so many travel agents out there, you must ensure dealing with a legit company.
In this post, we’ll answer the question “Is Agoda legit?” in detail. We’ll discuss Agoda’s reliability, safety, and what users say about it.
- What Is Agoda?
- Common Questions to Understand
- Is Agoda Legit?
- Is Agoda Reliable?
- Is Agoda Safe?
- What Are Users Saying About Agoda?
- Why Are People Worried About Using Agoda?
- Agoda Quality & Guarantees
- Agoda Customer Service
- Conclusion: Is Agoda Legit?
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Similar Gigs to Research
- Wrapping Up
What Is Agoda?
Founded in 2005, Agoda is an online traveling agency based in Singapore, Asia. The booking platform provides accommodation options for travelers, such as hotels, resorts, and vacation rentals.
Agoda is owned by Booking Holdings, which also owns other popular travel booking websites such as Booking, Kayak, and Priceline.
How Does Agoda Work?
Agoda follows an affiliate marketing business model, meaning they don’t sell their own products or services. Instead, they act as a middleman between the traveler and the hotel.
This facilitates transactions and makes life easier for the guest and host. You might ask, how does Agoda make money, then?
When you book through Agoda, they pass your card’s details to the hotel you booked. The hotel then charges the full payment and pays Agoda a percentage of your total payment.
To book through Agoda, you need to visit their website or download their mobile application. Then, search for available accommodations based on your destination, travel date, and number of guests.
You can filter search results by price, rating, location, or amenities. This will help you find your ideal accommodation option.
Once you find a suitable accommodation option, select your desired room type and proceed to payment.
Agoda allows payment online or in person. They’ll accept payment through a credit card, debit card, or PayPal for online payment. If you want to book in person, you’ll pay the hotel in their local currency upon your arrival.
After confirming your hotel booking, you should receive a confirmation email from Agoda within 30 minutes with your hotel voucher and Agoda booking ID.
Note that confirmation emails can take up to 24 hours when booking a flight through Agoda.
You can log into your Agoda account anytime after booking to review or modify any booking details. Many hotels offer flexible cancellation plans, but don’t forget to view their terms and conditions before canceling your booking.
Common Questions to Understand
Agoda usually offers cheaper rates than other travel agencies. As such, some users question their legitimacy and trustworthiness.
But before we learn more about Agoda’s legitimacy, let’s answer some common questions you might have about the company.
What is the Benefit of Agoda?
Agoda offers several benefits for travelers, making it a popular choice for hotel booking.
The platform features various accommodation options, from treehouses and tents to 5-star luxury hotels. These options are available in more than 200 countries worldwide.
Agoda provides competitive rates and exclusive deals at various hotels and private homes worldwide. On top of that, they offer discounted deals on rental cars, flights, resort packages, and much more.
Moreover, the website and mobile application are user-friendly and allow various sorting options. This makes it easier for users to find their ideal accommodation.
You’ll also find detailed information about each hotel regarding room types, amenities, and guest reviews. This will help you make an informed decision when choosing an accommodation.
Agoda also offers loyalty rewards to their customers when booking through their website.
For instance, you can get Agoda Cash after you confirm your booking and use it later for discounted bookings.
Are Trivago and Agoda the Same?
No, Trivago and Agoda are two distinct platforms in the hotel booking industry, and each serves different purposes.
Agoda is similar to Bookings.com, a hotel booking website that helps travelers book various accommodations online.
On the other hand, Trivago is a metasearch site that lets you compare hotel prices across hundreds of booking platforms to help you find the best deals.
What Are the Agoda Fees?
Agoda fees vary depending on the hotel, room type, location, duration of stay, and other factors. But generally speaking, Agoda doesn’t charge extra booking fees when using its platform.
However, taxes and service charges are usually added to the total cost of your booking. These taxes and service charges vary depending on your property, legal government, and currency selection.
Want to travel and earn money? Check out our article about getting paid to travel.
Is Agoda Legit?
Agoda is a popular travel booking site, especially for travelers going to Asian countries. The company is legit and reliable for booking accommodations, flights, and other travel services.
So, what makes people question Agoda’s legitimacy?
Well, scams and fraud are common in the travel industry, so travelers might receive unsolicited calls or messages from scammers claiming to represent Agoda or any other travel agency.
However, we can confirm that Agoda is legit as it operates under Booking Holdings, a market leader in online travel services. Booking Holdings owns other popular traveling agencies such as Priceline, Kayak, and Booking.
Some people think Agoda isn’t legit because some prices are too good to be true. However, this isn’t true. Along with many other travel agencies, Agoda usually displays prices before taxes and service fees.
That means the first price you encounter might be much lower than what you’ll pay when you proceed to the payment page. While many find this misleading, it’s not an uncommon practice among booking websites.
Here’s why we think Agoda is legit:
- It’s part of a reputable group: Agoda is a subsidiary of Booking Holdings, which is a reputable company in the travel industry.
- Long-lasting business: Agoda has been operating since 2005, and until today. If it was a scam company, it wouldn’t be operating until now.
- One of the top 10 hotel booking sites: According to Similarweb, Agoda is currently ranked fourth among the ten most visited hotel booking websites.
- Prices: Even though Agoda offers periodic discounts, their prices aren’t too good to be true.
Is Agoda Reliable?
Even though Agoda is a legitimate online travel agency, we found many negative user reviews. On Trustpilot, Agoda has a rating of 1.5 out of 5, which is quite low considering it’s part of a reputable company like Booking Holdings.
However, most customer reviews focused on poor customer service. Many users complained about late replies and delayed confirmation emails.
Moreover, price estimates are quite unclear as they don’t usually include taxes and service fees, which some users regard as misleading information.
Is Agoda Safe?
Yes, Agoda is a safe platform to book accommodations, flights, resorts, and guest houses.
They also use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology to encrypt personal information such as personal information and card details.
Regarding property safety, you should be safe if you book through Agoda. But still, they have no control over the properties as they don’t own them.
What Are Users Saying About Agoda?
To give you a closer look at customers’ experience with Agoda, we took a deep dive into popular review communities to see what people say.
Despite being one of the most popular travel agencies today, we found that users share mixed positive and negative feedback.
On Trustpilot, Agoda has received reviews from 36,399 customers. The overall rating is 1.5 out of 5, which is questionable for a reputable company.
Here’s what users say about Agoda on Trustpilot:
- Competitive prices: Many travelers said Agoda prices are incomparable to other traveling agencies. Most budget-conscious travelers tend to be satisfied with their experience with Agoda.
- Flexible cancellation policy: We found multiple positive reviews from users who accidentally booked the wrong rooms or travel dates and managed to cancel and get a refund without extra cancellation fees.
- Customer service issues: Most negative reviews were about poor customer service. Users didn’t like the late replies and the automated emails in such a time-sensitive industry.
On Sitejabber, Agoda has received 4,170 reviews, with an overall rating of 3.7 out of 5. This generally indicates that most customers are satisfied with their experience with Agoda.
However, we looked closely at the reviews and found a mix of positive and negative opinions. Here’s a closer look at what customers say about Agoda on Sitejabber:
- Best discounts and deals: Multiple customers said that flight and accommodation bundled discounts were ideal.
- Prompt correction: Some customers faced issues like booking the wrong tickets or room types, but after contacting customer service, they got a full refund.
- Poor customer service: Some users reported difficulties contacting Agoda’s customer service. Negative reviews mostly complained about cited delays and unhelpful responses from customer service.
Why Are People Worried About Using Agoda?
People have many concerns regarding Agoda. Regarding customer feedback, Agoda has many negative reviews on Trustpilot and Sitejabber.
On Trustpilot, people are worried about using Agoda for the following reasons:
- Unreliable customer service: Almost every negative review on Trustpilot talks about the poor customer service of Agoda.
- Overbooking: Sometimes, hosts forget to inform Agoda that a certain room is no longer available. Meanwhile, on Agoda, the room is still available for users to book, resulting in overbooking.
- Unclear pricing: Agoda tends to list the prices before tax and service charges. Customers complained that they were charged much higher than they expected.
Regarding customer reviews on Sitejabber, we found that customers mainly worry about using Agoda for the following reasons:
- Listing wrong properties: Some users reported that they found properties on the websites which were no longer associated with Agoda.
- Unprofessional customer service: Some reviews stated that Agoda customer service intentionally misunderstands users’ complaints to avoid refunding incorrect charges.
- False reservation: We found that some users didn’t find their reservations when they arrived at the hotel, even though they confirmed their booking on Agoda.
Regarding workers’ experience, we found most reviews to be positive, unlike the users’ reviews.
Looking for a travel job? Check out our post about travel jobs
Long story short, we don’t think it’s normal for a reputable company like Agoda to have many negative reviews. We’re not saying they’re not legit, but certainly, there’s something wrong at Agoda.
Despite serving millions of travelers worldwide, poor customer service is an evident issue with Agoda.
You might safely book accommodation or a flight, but if something goes wrong, you’ll have to go a long way with their customer service.
Agoda Quality & Guarantees
As a well-established online travel agency, Agoda aims to provide its customers with a top-notch booking experience.
For example, they offer the Best Price Guarantee, meaning that if any customer finds a lower price for the same accommodation on any other booking website, Agoda will match or even beat this price.
This demonstrates that Agoda values affordability and wants to provide the most competitive prices for its customers.
Moreover, reservations through Agoda are backed up by their reservation guarantee.
That means if a customer’s confirmed reservation isn’t available by the host, Agoda will book a suitable alternative accommodation for the customer.
In case the customer doesn’t like the alternative option, he gets a full refund from Agoda.
Agoda also has a secure payment system that ensures the user’s personal information and card details are confidential.
Agoda Customer Service
Agoda offers customer service designed to provide assistance to their customers throughout the whole booking and traveling process.
They offer multiple methods for customers to contact them to ensure they get the help they need immediately.
The customer support team at Agoda is available 24/7 to ensure every customer receives assistance regardless of location and time zone.
What Customer Service Options Are Available?
Customers can also reach Agoda through several phone, email, and live chat channels. This allows customers to pick the most convenient contact method to get their needed support.
As they serve millions of customers worldwide, Agoda provides customer service in multiple languages. This makes it easier for customers from different countries to communicate their concerns and receive help.
Agoda’s website also includes self-help resources with a comprehensive help center. You can find sections for FAQs, guides, and other resources.
This allows customers to find common concerns and questions to troubleshoot their problems independently before contacting the support team.
While Agoda offers 24/7 customer service via phone, mail, and chat, many users report longer waiting times and less informative responses than other travel websites.
So, if you run into any issues during or after your trip, you might struggle to get prompt, useful assistance from their customer service team.
Conclusion: Is Agoda Legit?
Agoda is a popular online travel agency based in Singapore and has been operating since 2005. It’s a reputable and safe website used by millions of travelers every year to book hotels, flights, resorts, and other travel services.
The Asian-based travel agency is owned by Booking Holdings, which also owns other well-known travel platforms such as Bookings, Kayak and Priceline.
While Agoda has some downsides, like poor customer service and incorrect listings. But their huge selection, competitive prices, and flexible policies make them a legit and trustworthy booking website.
There are many scams and frauds to watch out for in the travel industry, but Agoda itself operates legally and ethically.
If you receive any calls or emails from people claiming to represent Agoda or other travel agencies, these are likely scams and not associated with Agoda.
One more thing that proves that Agoda is legit is that their prices aren’t too good to be true. Of course, they offer some of the lowest price ranges in the market, but they also negotiate special deals and discounts with hotels and airlines.
Their business model relies on providing the best possible value to generate repeated customers and decent promotion.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Agoda an Indian website?
No, Agoda isn’t an Indian website. It’s an international online travel booking platform; they have headquarters in Singapore and operations in Thailand.
They offer a ton of travel services, including accommodation, flights, and more. Agoda serves Indian customers, but the website isn’t Indian.
Is an Agoda booking confirmed?
Yes. When booking through Agoda, you typically receive a confirmation email shortly after completing the reservation process.
The email should include important information about your booking, such as the booking ID, property name, room type, and check-in/check-out dates. This is essential to ensure that Agoda matches your desired booking.
It’s worth noting that some users complained that flight confirmation emails tend to delay for more than 24 hours.
Similar Gigs to Research
While Agoda offers some of the most competitive hotel and flight prices, you might have the urge to try other alternatives.
There are varying levels of reliability and user experiences associated with each alternative.
- Is Traveluro legit?: Traveluro is a legitimate booking website, but many users reported various issues with booking, making it less reliable than other booking platforms.
- Is SnapTravel legit?: SnapTravel is a legitimate company that relies on A I to help travelers find the best deals on flights and hotels.
- Is Trip.com legit?: Trip.com is legit as it’s owned by Trip Group, the world’s leading online booking company.
Wrapping Up
Is Agoda legit? Yes, Agoda is a reputable online travel booking agency used by millions of travelers worldwide. It’s owned by Booking Holdings, the same company that owns Kayak, Booking, and Priceline.
While users had different positive and negative experiences with Agoda, the company still offers some of the most competitive prices in the market.
They have a wide range of accommodations and flights, and the booking process is straightforward.
We think the main issue with Agoda lies in its poor customer service. They won’t scam you, but if something goes wrong with your reservation, you’ll likely struggle to receive help from the customer service team.
