Agoda protects fraudulent hotels and mocks customers facing hygiene and safety issues
I booked a stay at Hotel/Hostel Heinzelmännchen in Cologne through Agoda, expecting a basic budget stay with common areas as advertised. What we experienced was a total misrepresentation of what is shown online, and Agoda's customer service has been completely disrespectful. The property operates as an unmonitored "ghost hotel" with zero staff and absolutely no identity or passport verification upon check-in, violating local hospitality laws and creating major safety concerns. Furthermore, the beautiful common dining area shown in Agoda’s listing simply does not exist anymore. It has been stripped of all guest furniture and converted into a private apartment for a resident cat. Because of this, the entire property—including the ventilation leading to our bathroom—frequently smelled strongly of cat urine. This is a massive hygiene failure and a serious health hazard for anyone with allergies. The rooms were dingy, the towels provided were ancient mismatched rags from the 1990s, and the shower flooded the entire bathroom floor. When I provided clear photographic proof of the dismantled common areas, Agoda's customer service literally mocked me. They claimed my photos "only show a cat" and closed the claim by offering an insulting 17 USD refund, completely ignoring that the advertised dining room has been permanently dismantled. Also I’m in Europe and first offer to refund 10 € I declined was in €:s Agoda refuses to take responsibility for the fraudulent, misleading marketing hosted on their platform and expects customers to provide "photographic proof" of smells and staff absence. Completely unhelpful and disrespectful customer support. Avoid using Agoda if you value honesty and consumer protection! Furthermore, their customer communication platform is a complete joke. They heavily market 'smooth customer service,' but in reality, their in-app chat system traps you in an endless automated loop that refuses to connect you to a human agent. It just repeatedly tells you that the phone lines are congested, forcing you to manually hunt for a hidden customer service email just to speak to someone. The entire process is designed to make the consumer give up.