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Is Agoda’s Free Cancelation and Pay Later a scam?

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I feel so sorry that I’m straying away from my usual content to write somewhat a ‘complaint’ post about how Agoda has ‘cheated’ me of my money.

“There’s no such thing as a free lunch” and the next time you see the word ‘Free’ in their “Free Cancelation” marketing message, please take it with a huge pinch of salt.

Well, the story is that I made an advanced hotel booking on a ‘tentative’ hotel choice as that trip was months away and my friends and I were still fine-tuning our itinerary. Seeing that it was a good price and offering ‘Free Cancelation’ terms as long as I cancel 2 weeks before the actual date, I decided to book and pay for the booking. The reason why I chose to ‘Pay Now’ instead of ‘Pay Later’ was because Agoda is known for that notorious 5% exchange rate charge if you pay at a later date.

So.. red flag number 1 was that I didn’t realise that the price I agreed to pay vs the price that my credit card company eventually deducted was different.

The price shown on my app (at time of booking) and in my confirmation email was SGD 1,018.05.

Below, it says that it was a risk-free booking and I’ll pay NOTHING.

Important Information
Risk-free booking! Cancel before February XX 2025 and you’ll pay nothing! Any cancellation received within 8 days prior to the arrival date will be charged for the entire stay. Failure to arrive at your hotel or property will be treated as a No-Show and will incur a charge of 100% of the booking value (Hotel policy).

Well, most people don’t check their credit card bills every month, not to the exact cent and that was mistake no.1 on my side. I didn’t realise that the charge on my card was 1% higher than what I was invoiced.

10 Nov 2024 AGODA.COM HOTEL NAME INTERNET HKG S$1,028.23

Anyway, so 1.5 months went by and we decided to choose another hotel, and so I cancelled my booking and got this in my mail.

We have confirmed the cancellation of your booking at Sunshine City Prince Hotel Ikebukuro Tokyo.
Your booking has been cancelled for free. Any payment made for this booking will be refunded.
Agoda has initiated your refund, which will be sent to your initial payment method.
Refund amount SGD 1,018.05

 

 

 

 

 

This time, I went to check my bank statement to make sure that it was refunded successfully and guess what – the amount is now 1% lesser than the amount refunded.

01 Jan 2025 AGODA.COM SUNSHINE C INTERNET HKG S$1,007.87 cr

All in all, it means that I have lost 2% (or $20.36) of my booking amount despite it being a ‘free booking’.

**

So, I spent like 45 mins trying to get through to Agoda’s Customer Service using their Chatbot function but no matter what I pressed, I was going round and round in a loop bounceback until I got ‘timed out’ (probably detected as a bot by their system) and could only try again 50 mins later.

Anyway, I decided to check in with my bank to find out if the differences in charges were due to fluctuations in the currency rate. However, they checked on their end and told me that the exchange rate was already reflected as SGD during the charges and they were unable to determine what exchange rate had been used on their end. Anyway, the lady was helpful and told me that there was a ‘HKG’ mentioned in the statement which could indicate that the charges were made in HKD. So, I went to check the exchange rate between both dates – the purchase date and the refund date and found that if exchange rate had been the case, my refund amount would be higher than what I paid for because SGD weaken during these 2 time periods. Anyway, the conclusion was that she wanted me to check in with Agoda (send them a mail or something) while she did a goodwill refund on her end. *WOW, I didn’t expect that at all.

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Many hours later, I still had that Agoda window open and I decided to try to give the Chatbot a try again. I guess I was lucky and after getting bounced around twice and writing a desperate plea “I NEED HELP” in the chatbot, I was finally redirected to a live agent. I didn’t get the answers I want but I did find out that the charge was actually made in ‘USD’ on their backend and that this payment goes through a third party in Hong Kong, and all they can see on their end is just $1,018.05 – and that it had been accurate for what I paid and what was refunded to me. I told them to send me an email which reflects the USD amount so I can bring it up to the bank for dispute.

I mean between the bank and agoda, someone must not be honest about the whole transcation/refund process and it rather frustrating.

On the other hand, I’ve been a ‘convert’ to this other platform called trip.com which has been very aggressive on promotions and shopback lately. As I have also done bookings/cancellations with them recently, I went to check my credit card bill for those transactions and everything was looking fine. What I see in my invoice is what I was charged in my Credit Card statement and when it comes to the refund, I was credited the same amount. It really puzzles me on how Agoda got it all wrong. I did a quick google online and found many reviews about Agoda’s poor/lack of customer service but then, they are really offering the cheapest prices at times! Which is why I still go back to them despite being annoyed with them in the past before.

I guess there is a reason for their huge discounts and promotions – that’s because someone else is footing for the differences :/

*****

Moving on to share about the ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ scam which marginally it wouldnt’ be considered as a scam because it is ALL IN THE FINE PRINTS that nobody reads. Okay. Here we go.

This incident happened back in Nov 2023 for my trip to Taiwan.

What happens is that the prices they advertise on their platform (in your local currency) are shown in very favourable exchange rates. So for my case study, it was a trip that shows $396.31 as the price that I’m paying but there’s a tempting icon which says that you can ‘Pay Later’. After selecting the ‘Pay Later’ button and confirming the reservation, you will see a note saying you have chosen a ‘future price’ and that NT9,922.98 will be due on 9 Nov (usually 3 days before the actual booking) and subjected to ‘these terms (clickable URL)’ affecting your price.

So what happened some time later was that I discovered that the exchange rate was favourable for me and then I decide to initiate the payment on 7 Nov, 2 days before the original planned deduction and guess what, to my horror, I was charged $414.91 (and you will only know the amount after you pay), not at time of payment. This means that the exchange rate went from the good 25.035 to 22.618. Once again, I disputed and they told me that ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ is subjected to the terms (which no one really reads..)

[I extracted the content from the site and left my comments in green.]

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8.1 Currency selection and effects

The Platform allows you to make bookings with Travel Suppliers around the world. Due to our international user base and the global nature of our listings, certain options are available to you to choose the currency displayed to you on the Platform (“Display Currency”) and to choose for the currency in which you are charged for a booking (“Charge Currency”).

Your default Display Currency is based on your IP address. You can select your preferred Display Currency by clicking the currency code (e.g. USD, AUD) shown in the top right corner of any page, or in Account Settings.

Before you select your Charge Currency on the booking form/confirmation page, the Platform shows you estimated prices (their ‘disclaimer’ which was not otherwise mentioned when you are booking/browsing)of your booking in your Display Currency for your convenient reference only. Where relevant, Agoda uses the then-current Bloomberg Generic Composite Rate to calculate those estimated prices of your booking. The price you pay for a booking will depend on your selected booking type, Payment Instrument, Display Currency, Charge Currency, and any applicable credits and discounts, (here’s a long list of  reasons why the price you pay isn’t what they estimate for you) among other things.

Agoda determines your default Charge Currency based on the default currency of the Payment Instrument details that you enter on the booking form/confirmation page. You are also provided the option to set your Charge Currency as the currency that the Travel Supplier uses for its Travel Product listings with Agoda (“Product Currency”).

If you select a “Pay Now” booking … Agoda will calculate the price for your booking using the then-current Bloomberg Generic Composite Rate. However, after you select your Charge Currency, an additional amount of 5% of the price will be added when Charge Currency is different from Display Currency, (this totally caught me by surprise. 5% is a huge difference!!!) except when (A) you are paying with a US-issuer payment card whose default currency is USD; or (B) you are paying with a US-issuer payment card and booking from an IP address located in the United States.When you click “Book Now!”, you will be charged the price shown to you in your selected Charge Currency.
If you select a “Pay Later” booking … Agoda will calculate an estimated price for your booking using the then-current Bloomberg Generic Composite Rate. However, after you select your Charge Currency, an additional amount of 5% of the price will be added (i) when Charge Currency is different from Display Currency, except when (A) you are paying with a US-issuer payment card whose default currency is USD; or (B) you are paying with a US-issuer payment card and booking from an IP address located in the US; or (ii) when Charge Currency is different from Product Currency, except when (A) you are making your booking from an IP address located in the United Kingdom; (B) you are paying with a US-issuer payment card whose default currency is USD; or (C) you are paying with a US-issuer payment card and booking from an IP address located in the United States). If the conditions for applying both sections (i) and (ii) are met, only the price increase described in section (ii) would be applied.Because you have selected a “Pay Later” booking, you will not pay anything until the payment date shown on the booking form and on your booking confirmation. On the payment date, Agoda will calculate the final price for your booking in your selected Charge Currency using the then-current Bloomberg Generic Composite Rate plus up to additional amount of 5% of the price, where applicable.
REMINDER: Your final price on the payment date may increase (or decrease) compared to the estimated price, depending on any changes in the relevant Bloomberg Generic Composite Rates (I have not heard of this ever.) between the day that you confirm your booking and the actual charge date.
If you select a “Pay at Hotel” booking … You will pay the Travel Supplier directly at the time of your booking in the currency indicated on the booking form and on your booking confirmation, or in any other currency that the Travel Supplier agrees to accept.Agoda will also calculate and show you on the booking form an estimated price for your booking in your selected Display Currency using the then-current Bloomberg Generic Composite Rate. However, payment is due in the Travel Supplier’s currency.

If you pay the Travel Supplier in a different currency, or with a Payment Instrument that uses a different currency, the actual amount that you will be charged for your booking will depend on the exchange rate(s) used by the Travel Supplier and/or your card issuer. These factors are outside of Agoda’s control.

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So much technical jargon which no one really reads unless they have to. In layman terms, just be prepared to pay up to 5% more whenever you book with Agoda.

***

Now that I look back on this, I should have stayed away from Agoda since the first incident I discovered back in 2023 but somehow the attractive prices (and me being a platinum member) somehow keep drawing me back.

I guess I need to be for consistent in checking ALL my credit card bills and not believe that ‘FREE Cancelation’ really exists. There is probably some hidden conversion that we are not aware of and somehow I’ve paid it a couple of times due to the constant free cancelation nonsense that I’ve scammed myself into believing.

**

Anyway, I decided to write this post so the other affected customers can come and share my woes and sob for our missing 2%. I’m still considering if I should attempt taking this up as a complain with CASE on possible deceptive pricing/misrepresentation of terms but I’m not sure if I have the energy to submit all the paperwork that might be necessary.

If you found my article and is feeling upset over Agoda, you’re not alone and sorry I don’t have a solution for you either. Perhaps, just stop using them.

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