Agoda booking refund/compensation

Smith3rs

Hi,
I am just looking for some advice on a booking I made through Agoda. I booked a hotel in Rome with Agoda, when we arrived we were not happy with the hotel or the owner, who was not even there to check us in and our room was not tidied, so we had to go and find somewhere to stay for an hour. I contacted Agoda to tell them I was not happy and would like to stay somewhere different. Customer service said they would try to find a solution and get back to me within the hour. They never got back to me and left me with no option but to go back to the hotel and just hope for the best.

The owner had no working Wifi so I could not pay on my card, so he told me I had to go get the money out and pay him in cash, this raised alarm bells but I had to pay or he could have carded my card through Agoda so I had to pay him. I lost money through the transaction rate as well. He gave me no receipt as there wasn't anything to get me a receipt (e.g cash register). He then left us by saying he would bring breakfast and some towels back. He never returned for the five days, even after us phoning him multiple times. The final night we had someone trying to get into our room and the owner when we rang him just told us it was okay and he will just be trying to get into somewhere else

On our return, we contacted Agoda about the situation. At first, they refused to accept that we even stayed there because the owner cancelled our payment through Agoda saying we did not show up, they contacted the owner and he asked for a receipt to prove we turned up, which of course we did not. I sent a video of us in the room and offered to send my google map tracking to show we stayed at the hotel. The customer service team were terrible and kept saying they would ring me back but then just never get back to me. They finally offered me 28 Agoda bucks in compensation after 10 phone calls lasting around 40mins each, when would expire in 3 months.

I would just wonder if I have any rights that entitle me to any compensation for Agoda not getting back to me consistently and the hotel, not providing services that were advertised on Agoda's website.

Thanks

hollydays

Surely you could have waited an hour for the room.
Did tripadviser not give you some idea about what the hotel was going to be like ?
Why didn’t you ask for a handwritten receipt?!!
Italy is a cash economy, I’d have negotiated some discount there.

hollydays

What did you pay per night?

Smith3rs

Waiting an hour for the room was fine, I tried to just cut the story short but the apartment block was very poorly kept and no really as secure as I would have liked. The issues with getting in touch with the owner had alarm bells ringing. Not having our room cleaned by 16:00 was also hardly the best sign. That's why we contacted our booking company.
I know that not getting any sort of receipt was a massive mistake, but I just assumed with him having nothing to give me a receipt that a handwritten receipt would be useless as it is surely easily faked.
We had a lot of the main issues after we paid so negotiation was not really a possibility. He did not return for the rest of our stay.

hollydays

Sorry, I just added, did you not look up the hotel on tripadviser

Smith3rs

I booked through Agoda and all of the reviews were positive, its currently at 8.1. Trip advisor also has it rated quite highly, but after going and then looking back at the reviews we realised that reviews stopped in 2015/16 until recently and then all of the new reviews are bad.

hollydays

Hard way to learn that lesson but never book a hotel unless you’ve thoroughly checked out tripadviser . Rome is not a cheap place to stay and you don’t get much for your money.The onus is on you to make sure you get the standard of hotel that suits you, and the research takes time

Smith3rs

I understand I should have done a lot more research, however surely if Agoda is advertising a hotel and saying it has WiFi and breakfast, also that they did not get back to me when I contacted them with my issues. I would not have had to deal with this. Surely they should have to also investigate the hotel for lying about us not staying there.

hollydays

Smith3rs wrote: »

I understand I should have done a lot more research, however surely if Agoda is advertising a hotel and saying it has WiFi and breakfast, also that they did not get back to me when I contacted them with my issues. I would not have had to deal with this. Surely they should have to also investigate the hotel for lying about us not staying there.

Italian hotel breakfasts aren’t worth having. It’s better to go to a cafe. It would have been a stale old pastry and a cup of nasty coffee.
In your situation I’d be asking for a refund for the breakfasts you didn’t get . Ideally you’d have kept the receipts from the ones you’ve hd( Agoda may ask you for them).
As for the WiFi , it’s really common in Europe that the WiFi is not good. Again , you get what you pay for.its not the uk

Smith3rs

Yes I understand you pay for what you get, but I didn't get what I paid for haha

always_sunny

Smith3rs wrote: »

Yes I understand you pay for what you get, but I didn't get what I paid for haha

Perhaps... how much did you pay?
There's no such a thing as a free lunch, in your case breakfast!