Really disappointed with how Agoda handled a genuine booking mistake
While travelling in Indonesia, we tried to book an extra night at a hotel for August 7–8, but somehow the completed booking ended up being for November 7–8 instead. We realised the mistake shortly afterwards, when the November booking was still around three months away. I completely understand that the booking was non-refundable and that the mistake was ultimately ours. I wasn’t expecting to automatically be entitled to a refund, but I was hoping there might be some flexibility or a goodwill solution given the circumstances. Instead, I spent around a month going back and forth between Agoda, the hotel and Accor trying to sort it out. Agoda initially contacted the hotel on our behalf, the hotel declined the refund, and after exhausting that route I went back to Agoda to see if there was anything they could do from their side. Eventually a supervisor offered to cancel the booking free of charge, but only if we made another non-refundable booking at the exact same hotel. I explained that we had only been in Pangkalan Bun as part of a trip to Borneo and realistically won’t be returning, so that wasn’t a useful solution. I even asked whether the booking value could instead be given as Agoda credit to use on another hotel in the future, but was told the same-property rebooking was the only option. The customer service chats were frustrating too, as they closed very quickly if I didn’t respond right away and I had to reconnect and continue the issue again. I know Agoda wasn’t obligated to refund a non-refundable booking, and I take responsibility for the original mistake. What disappointed me was the complete lack of a practical goodwill solution after weeks of trying to resolve an obvious date error well before the stay. I’ve used Agoda for travel before, but this experience has definitely made me hesitant to book through them again. ------------ Update in response to Agoda’s reply below: I had already contacted the Help Center multiple times before leaving this review, and my case had already been escalated to a supervisor who told me this was Agoda’s final decision. If you’re actually offering to look at the case again, I’m happy to provide my booking details privately. Otherwise, sending me back to the same Help Center I spent weeks trying to sort this out through is unfortunately exactly the problem I wrote this review about.