Agoda.com Hotel Reservation Company Review

Agoda.com may not be a common household name when someone is looking to a book a hotel room on the Internet. If you've never heard of them you're not alone. What you've most likely have heard of is Priceline.com, especially if you're from the United States.

Agoda.com is actually a child company of Priceline.com, an extremely popular travel agency offering deals on hotels, plane tickets or anything else you need to reserve for a vacation.

All they do is basically focus on getting the best rates for anyone shopping for discounted hotel deals and rates all over the world. From my experience, I find that they are particularly good at providing travelers with special unpublished rates and last minute discount room rates for hotels throughout Asia.

I get a lot of emails asking me if Agoda has better rates than their competitors. And that's the 1 million dollar question. I can confidently and comfortably say that they've provided me with decent rates for hotels in Europe and Asia where I travel frequently for business.

I say decent because all hotel reservation agencies offer more or less the same prices with some offering lower than others.

However, Agoda does have an advantage over their competitors. They offer their customers a Lowest Price Guarantee. They state that they will either match or beat a price if you find a better deal within 48 hours from the time of booking.

But there is a way to get even more discounts from. And that's by using Agoda Reward Points that you can earn and can use for future discounts.

Personally I've used Agoda for about 3 years. I've recommended them to friends and family for hotel reservations all over the world. To date we don't have any complaints about their services and are quite satisfied.

Whenever I travel to Asia I always make a video review of hotels that I really like and recommend. Below is a list of hotels I've written and made video reviews of in parts of Asia. And all of the rooms were booked through Agoda's website where I found very good room rates and discounts.

Seoul, South Korea
Kaya Hotel

Tokyo, Japan
Sunlite Shinjuku Hotel
Hotel Sunroute Higashi Shinjuku Hotel

Malaysia
Piccolo Hotel in Kuala Lumpur
EQ Ferringhi Hotel in Penang

Kowloon, Hong Kong
BP International Hotel

Bangkok, Thailand
Amora Neoluxe Suites
Bangkok Cha Da Hotel
Bangkok Miramar Hotel
Boss Suites
Centric Ratchada Hotel
Fusion Suites Hotel
Hip Hotel
Hope Land Executive Residence
Mac Boutique Suites
Montien Hotel Bangkok
Palazzo Hotel
Ramada Encore Hotel
S15 Sukhumvit Hotel

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Truong Hai Saigon Hotel

I've used many hotel reservation websites on the Internet and I still do to this day. Agoda offers rates that are either a bit lower or about the same as their competitors. But the real benefit of booking a hotel through their website is their valuable rewards program.

It's basically a customer loyalty program where you can accumulate points and use them for future hotel discounts. It's really easy to earn points and there are 2 ways to do so.

1. You can earn 4% - 7% of the price of the room automatically.
2. Write a short review about your hotel stay and earn 500 points. (Note: Agoda has stopped awarding points for hotel reviews.)

Once you reach 12,500 points you automatically get $25 for future discounts. Or you can do what I do and accumulate more points for even bigger discounts.

Another really easy way to earn points is to write a review after you've checked out of the hotel. Agoda will send you an email within 2 weeks after your checkout date, requesting your review. In return you get 500 easy points to add to your account.

It's free to join the Agoda rewards program. All you have to do is make your first booking and you're automatically enrolled. It's really that simple.

Agoda accepts all major credit cards for payments, but I also like the convenience of paying for my rooms with PayPal, which is a company that handles payment transactions on the Internet. So I never have to pull out my credit card and type in my information for all the world to see while I'm at an airport.

If you are interested in what other guests have to say about any particular hotel represented though Agoda you can find out easily on their website.

It's a great way for me to determine which hotel I should stay or not stay in.

Also you will be given a chance to write your own short review too whenever you book a hotel room on their website. And for your review you will receive 500 extra rewards points.

Agoda used to have a live chat customer support function on their website but they've discontinued it. And it's a real shame because it came in handy whenever I needed to make quick amendments to a reservation.

Besides praises for Agoda's hotel reservation services there are also lots of negative reviews.

Any company in the travel industry with a large volume of customer intake such as Agoda will have a certain amount of unhappy customers. It's the law of probability. Anyone who flies frequently will have their fair share of airline service horror stories.

Though I believe there are many more positive and satisfied Agoda customers than there are unsatisfied ones.

That said, all I can say is I've never had a serious problem whether it be billing or reservation issue as a customer.

The only one hiccup that I've had through the dozen times I've made a transaction through Agoda is receiving a voucher a day late. But since I always email the hotel directly to see if my booking has been received, which the hotels already have, it's really a non-issue to me. But I can understand that it could be a problem for someone who needs a room quickly and made a reservation but does not have access to a computer afterwards.

Finally, I always recommend people to do some serious price comparisons. With the Internet it's so easy and convenient. And Agoda.com should definitely be a company to take a look at to find some really good hotel deals out there, for whatever country you are planning to reserve a hotel in.