If you’re planning to travel to Asia soon and looking for a hotel reservation company than you’ve most likely come across Agoda.com. There are many other popular companies offering the same services, but what makes Agoda better than the rest. And are their services reliable? Find out the answers in this article.
If you’ve never heard of Agoda before than it’s no surprise. However you must have at least heard of Priceline.com, the Internets largest travel agency. Well Priceline is the parent company of Agoda. However Agoda only handles hotel reservations world wide but they particularly specialize in the Asian hotel marketplace.
So what makes Agoda.com so special?
After using so many different hotel reservation companies, I’ve noticed that all the hotel rates are on average are roughly the same give or take a few dollars. Agoda’s room rates too are on par with the rest of their competitors. However, Agoda has a rewards point system which you can earn for room discounts and free nights.
This is the biggest advantage Agoda has over their competitors. You can earn points automatically. From 4% – 7% of your room price. Sometimes there are special offers where you can earn more. The minimum points you need for example a $25USD discount is 12,500 points and that’s easy to make if you spend about $625 USD, which is easy what most people already spend for a hotel stay.
You can either use up those points or save them up like I do for an even bigger discount and free nights.
The benefits of using Agoda doesn’t end there. You can earn an easy 500 reward points for submitting a review of the hotel you you stayed in. Agoda heavily relies on guest reviews so they want to give them an incentive. It’s easy to submit a review and wouldn’t take more than five minutes. You usually get an email from Agoda within 2 weeks after check out, asking for your review. As you can see as a frequent customer of Agoda, your points can quickly add up.
What I like best about Agoda is their ability to quickly confirm room availability. Agoda’s competitors require you to wait a few hours or maybe a day because of the time zone differences to find out if a room is available. Agoda’s reservation systems are always up to date with the latest deals, special prices and of course instant room availability.
Finally don’t you hate it when researching a hotel online and you don’t know exactly what types of attractions or other hotel options are in the area? Agoda has a great hotel map feature that uses Google Maps to pinpoint your hotel’s location and reveal nearby landmarks, attractions and hotel alternatives.
