Is Agoda Legit?
Agoda is a popular travel booking site, especially for travelers going to Asian countries.
The company is legit and reliable for booking accommodations, flights, and other travel services.
So, what makes people question Agoda's legitimacy?
Well, scams and fraud are common in the travel industry, so travelers might receive unsolicited calls or messages from scammers claiming to represent Agoda or any other travel agency.
However, we can confirm that Agoda is legit as it operates under Booking Holdings, a market leader in online travel services.
Booking Holdings owns other popular traveling agencies such as Priceline, Kayak, and Booking.
Some people think Agoda isn't legit because some prices are too good to be true. However, this isn’t true.
Along with many other travel agencies, Agoda usually displays prices before taxes and service fees.
That means the first price you encounter might be much lower than what you’ll pay when you proceed to the payment page.
While many find this misleading, it's not an uncommon practice among booking websites.
Here's why we think Agoda is legit:
- It's part of a reputable group: Agoda is a subsidiary of Booking Holdings, which is a reputable company in the travel industry.
- Long-lasting business: Agoda has been operating since 2005, and until today. If it was a scam company, it wouldn't be operating until now.
- One of the top 10 hotel booking sites: According to Similarweb, Agoda is currently ranked fourth among the ten most visited hotel booking websites.
- Prices: Even though Agoda offers periodic discounts, their prices aren't too good to be true.
Is Agoda Reliable?
Even though Agoda is a legitimate online travel agency, we found many negative user reviews.
On Trustpilot, Agoda has a rating of 1.5 out of 5, which is quite low considering it's part of a reputable company like Booking Holdings.
However, most customer reviews focused on poor customer service. Many users complained about late replies and delayed confirmation emails.
Moreover, price estimates are quite unclear as they don't usually include taxes and service fees, which some users regard as misleading information.
Is Agoda Safe?
Yes, Agoda is a safe platform to book accommodations, flights, resorts, and guest houses.
They also use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology to encrypt personal information such as personal information and card details.
Regarding property safety, you should be safe if you book through Agoda. But still, they have no control over the properties as they don't own them.
What Are Users Saying About Agoda?
To give you a closer look at customers' experience with Agoda, we took a deep dive into popular review communities to see what people say.
Despite being one of the most popular travel agencies today, we found that users share mixed positive and negative feedback.
On Trustpilot, Agoda has received reviews from 36,399 customers. The overall rating is 1.5 out of 5, which is questionable for a reputable company.
Here's what users say about Agoda on Trustpilot:
- Competitive prices: Many travelers said Agoda prices are incomparable to other traveling agencies. Most budget-conscious travelers tend to be satisfied with their experience with Agoda.
- Flexible cancellation policy: We found multiple positive reviews from users who accidentally booked the wrong rooms or travel dates and managed to cancel and get a refund without extra cancellation fees.
- Customer service issues: Most negative reviews were about poor customer service. Users didn't like the late replies and the automated emails in such a time-sensitive industry.
On Sitejabber, Agoda has received 4,170 reviews, with an overall rating of 3.7 out of 5. This generally indicates that most customers are satisfied with their experience with Agoda.
However, we looked closely at the reviews and found a mix of positive and negative opinions.
Here's a closer look at what customers say about Agoda on Sitejabber:
- Best discounts and deals: Multiple customers said that flight and accommodation bundled discounts were ideal.
- Prompt correction: Some customers faced issues like booking the wrong tickets or room types, but after contacting customer service, they got a full refund.
- Poor customer service: Some users reported difficulties contacting Agoda's customer service. Negative reviews mostly complained about cited delays and unhelpful responses from customer service.
Why Are People Worried About Using Agoda?
People have many concerns regarding Agoda. Regarding customer feedback, Agoda has many negative reviews on Trustpilot and Sitejabber.
On Trustpilot, people are worried about using Agoda for the following reasons:
- Unreliable customer service: Almost every negative review on Trustpilot talks about the poor customer service of Agoda.
- Overbooking: Sometimes, hosts forget to inform Agoda that a certain room is no longer available. Meanwhile, on Agoda, the room is still available for users to book, resulting in overbooking.
- Unclear pricing: Agoda tends to list the prices before tax and service charges. Customers complained that they were charged much higher than they expected.
Regarding customer reviews on Sitejabber, we found that customers mainly worry about using Agoda for the following reasons:
- Listing wrong properties: Some users reported that they found properties on the websites which were no longer associated with Agoda.
- Unprofessional customer service: Some reviews stated that Agoda customer service intentionally misunderstands users' complaints to avoid refunding incorrect charges.
- False reservation: We found that some users didn't find their reservations when they arrived at the hotel, even though they confirmed their booking on Agoda.
Regarding workers’ experience, we found most reviews to be positive, unlike the users’ reviews.
Looking for a travel job? Check out our post about travel jobs
Long story short, we don't think it's normal for a reputable company like Agoda to have many negative reviews.
We're not saying they're not legit, but certainly, there's something wrong at Agoda.
Despite serving millions of travelers worldwide, poor customer service is an evident issue with Agoda.
You might safely book accommodation or a flight, but if something goes wrong, you'll have to go a long way with their customer service.
