Very poor experience with Agoda.
Very poor experience with Agoda. Their AI customer-service chatbot was almost useless. Once I eventually reached real people, the response seemed primarily focused on fobbing me off rather than resolving the problem. The property I booked was materially and significantly different from how it was advertised on Agoda. The listing showed clean, presentable hotel accommodation. The reality included filthy and damaged carpets, damp/mould-like growth, a strong damp smell and even a bathroom extractor coming away from the wall around its electrical connection. There were also serious overnight noise problems and no effective management available. I supplied Agoda with extensive photographic evidence. They acknowledged my concerns regarding the property's condition, cleanliness, listing accuracy and potential health and safety issues. Despite this, they offered me just 15% compensation (as credit) rather than refunding accommodation that I would never have booked had it been accurately represented. After a week of emailing back and forth several times a day, being asked to re-supply images at each turn, I did eventually get 80% refund in cash. I do appreciate this, although the effort it took was quite something, that's moved my review from 1-2 stars. The reason it's still on 2 stars is because the property is still being prominently recommended on Agoda using the same attractive listing photographs, despite Agoda now having photographic evidence of its actual condition. When you search the location, the default setting is 'best picks' and this hotel is no1. It is listed as 3 star but is only zero star, Its like a 1970's student house. Its not just that it was disgustingly dirty and not like the photos, it had electic fans hanging off the wall with electrics showing. This is a health and safety issue. I sent several screen grabs to Agoda showing this but they still advertising it as their no 1 recommendation. Booking platforms rely on customers trusting that what they are purchasing bears a reasonable resemblance to what is advertised. In this case, that trust was badly misplaced. Therefore, I don't feel I can trust the platform anymore to book anywhere else. It's a shame as I used them several times and I book hotels at all the time. But going forwards I'll be using booking.com