Agoda hotel bookings

[sydneyboy]

Has anyone booked hotels in any part of the world using Agoda? What has been your experience good, bad or indifferent? They appear to be markedly cheaper than other wholesalers.

Excellent

[billyhouston]

Has anyone booked hotels in any part of the world using Agoda? What has been your experience good, bad or indifferent? They appear to be markedly cheaper than other wholesalers.

.... until they add the 'taxes' at the end.

Friday, November 9, 2007
Priceline.com negotiates Asian acquisition
Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology

Priceline.com Inc. reports acquiring an Asian online travel-booking company.

Norwalk, Conn.-based Priceline.com bought Agoda Co., a firm based in both Thailand and Singapore, specializing in hotel discount bookings in Asia. The deal includes an undisclosed amount of cash combined with a multiyear, performance-based earn-out, company officials said.

Agoda's current management team will continue to manage Agoda's operations independently as part of Priceline.com's international business, officials said.

Agoda, which is Priceline's third international acquisition, offers hotel properties in Australia, China, Japan, India, Thailand, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, New Zealand and several other countries. Through Oct. 31, Adoda posted bookings of about $36 million, a 122 percent increase over the same period last year, officials said.

Priceline.com, founded in 1997, employs about 700 workers.

In 2004, Priceline.com acquired Cambridge, England-based online hotel reservation service Active Hotel; in 2005, it acquired Amsterdam-based hotel service Bookings BV. The two services were subsequently merged into a single, new online hotel reservation service, Booking.com.

During 2006, Priceline.com posted a net income of $74.4 million on revenue of $1.2 billion.

All contents of this site ┬й American City Business Journals Inc. All rights reserved.

AGODA is the biggest scam and rip-off, even worse than the notorious asiarooms.com (though, both companies have been sold to big players in the tourism business recently).
they add 20% taxes to their "oh-so-competitive"-rates..... but as has been posted by another member above, u only learn about that when u try to make the booking.....

people should avoid such companies who apparently try to rip-off customers.....

many good and reliable booking websites available, such as sawasdee.com or hoteltravel.com (they even wont charge ur CC until a few days before ur trip).
No need to use the scam-artists.....

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

Excellent

well there you are..that is a recommendation carrying as much weight as one of mine. :albino:

[sydneyboy]

Thank you Asiawolfie for your contribution this discussion. I was interested in a hotel in Rio de Janeiro and was quoted on the Agoda website a very competitive nightly rate in Australian dollars. When I proceeded to the next step I was quoted a figure in US dollars with taxes of 15% added per night and a total figure for the full duration of my proposed stay. Two icons appeared "instant online confirmation" and "typically confirmed within one business day" but the system would not allow me to ascertain which option applied in this instance. I then went to the trouble of ringing the Agoda help desk for clarification. I was told that for this hotel confirmation could not be confirmed for 24 to 48 hours. Note "48 hours". I suppose they would argue that the weasal words "typically confirmed within 24 hours" covered themselves. In summary, like so many things in this life Agoda are not what they seem to be.