Hosed by Agoda
 

Hi, all.

I want to start off by saying that Agoda is NOT a bad company (i.e. they try their best to correct mistakes).

Having gotten this disclaimer out of the way, let me cut to the chase:

1) I prepaid for the best possible room at a hotel near Hongqiao
2) The drill was supposed to be "show receipt to the hotel people, and get room"
3) Were it not for the fact that I speak Chinese, I would have struck out on #2
4) Agoda's China number was out of service
-as such, the hotel people thought it was a fake company
5) In the end, I resolved the situation by handing over cash
6) I did NOT get the nice room that I had booked
7) I DID receive an extra day
8) Agoda covered all costs

Lucky number eight. Though, I've had a similar issue (reception thought the website was fake), so I'd just go and see if there's a local language version of the site.

In any event, I've used them about sixty times, and the one time I was hornswoggled (in Incheon, RoK), Agoda refunded the exact amount two days later.

Sorry to hear about your experience. A feeling of helplessness.
Kudos for Agoda for stepping up, albeit post-facto.
My only problem w/ Agoda was a month ago...I purchased a junior suite. About 2 weeks later I was informed that the room type was not available. Disappointing, but not as bad as what you experienced.

It may be less correlated with my experience but:
I booked hotels via Agoda in HKG every time it went well

guess Agoda is not as prevalent as C-trip or other travel website operated on Mainland

good to hear they took responsibility

The problem with Agoda is that they insist hotels to accept their "agoda voucher". What happens is that when you book with Agoda, you pay Agoda. When you check-in, the hotel is supposed to bill Agoda.

Needless to say, this system doesn't work nicely. I've been refused check-in over 3 times in various cities.

Agoda does have competitive rates, however ;/

You reminded me of a DYKWWA (do you know who WE are?) check-in experience with the Mandarin Oriental in Manila. Most of the time when I've used Agoda, the check-in agent doesn't need to have the actual print-out of the confirmation page; a screenshot suffices. However, those trogs told me to go find an internet cafe to print out a copy, "for our records." I insisted that they let me use the lobby internet, to which one woman begrudgingly gave me a 5-minute internet code to email them the confirmation so that they could print it.

Then again, that's not Agoda's fault either.