Hotel booking, hidden charges

Stinicker

I recently booked a hotel on Agoda.com for an upcoming visit to Asia, at the time of booking I briefly checked tripadvisor and it has a good rating and the agoda rating was good too so I went ahead and booked as it is a new hotel. However later after booking I read some of the negative reviews on Tripadvisor and discovered that this hotel charges extra for towels and Air Conditioning.

I then returned to Agoda and discovered this information is actually hidden on the website so that you would miss it as I did and it is a very deceptive practice. The cost of paying for towels and A/C for each day during my stay would amount to €55 or a 38% increase on what I paid. The booking is non-refundable with no cancellations allowed and when I rang Agoda they told me this but offered to contact the Hotel to see if they would allow the cancellation anyway on these grounds

What I was most concerned about was the local taxes and tourist levy and these were explicitly included because on agoda they are not added on until the end of the booking. I wonder if they are allowed to do this? It is a very deceptive practice and I know the EU recently tackled Ryanair over their similar pricing structure to make costs more transparent to customers.

Nody

If 55 EUR adds on 38% then by definition it's a cheap hotel (as your use of days to me at least imply multiple days stay so at 145 EUR for 2+ days it's going quickly towards cheap); why did you assume a/c (which is expensive due to being on 24/7 in Asia) or towels would be included for free? Did it state anywhere in the text of the room description that they where included?

Stinicker

It is a hotel in the Philippines so anything above €30/night is really above average. On an earlier leg of the trip in Thailand I am paying €10/night and prices in these countries are amongst the cheapest in the world.

The total for 6 nights is €144.81 and by adding on €55 makes it effectively €200 for 6 nights or €33.33/night which is expensive by comparison to the other hotels which I could have booked for <€20/night which would have A/C, Towels and free wifi as standard. The Hotel also charges for wifi but loads of hotels do that so I am not so bothered.

I am going traveling to the region for five weeks and am pre-booked for some nights and will just book locally for the rest at even cheaper rates. Accommodation in SE Asia can be 4 to 5 times cheaper than Ireland and if you pay above €30/night then you will usually be getting high 4 stars and 5 star rooms can be had in some cases for similar or even a little bit more money.

What may sound cheap in Ireland can be a rip-off in other countries which is why I am fighting this as it is deceptive practice by agoda.com.

Miaireland

How do you mean it is hidden on the website? Is it mislabelled or is it in small print or is it included in the terms and conditions that you tick to say you read.

Stinicker

Miaireland wrote: »

How do you mean it is hidden on the website? Is it mislabelled or is it in small print or is it included in the terms and conditions that you tick to say you read.

It was hidden under Hotel Policies which you had to expand to see, I never noticed this and as you can see from the screenshot it says what is available like A/C (thats a given in most tropical hotels) but they had additional Hotel charges hidden in a menu which you have to expand to see them.

galwayjohn89

That's really not hidden. It's listed under hotel policies which you should be reading before booking.

Miaireland

To be fair I don't think they are hidden. There is a clear mark on the Hotel Policy section to show it needs to be expanded. As you said that you didn't see it but if you read the front page fully you would have noticed.

I think the fault lies with you rather than the site.

donegal.

it says ac or ceiling fan. i'd presume the cheapest rate would have no ac.
most budget asian hotels have no towels, bring one or buy one there.

Stinicker

donegal. wrote: »

it says ac or ceiling fan. i'd presume the cheapest rate would have no ac.
most budget asian hotels have no towels, bring one or buy one there.

I've never stayed at a one of those "budget places" and everywhere I have ever stayed in Asia has always had A/C and towels provided. The hotel in question has Air Conditioning except they charged separately for its usage.

Anyway to get back on topic I got an email today from Agoda and they contacted the Hotel in the Philippines and confirmed that 24hrs a/c, 24hrs free wifi, tv and towels will be provided now due to the misunderstanding. All of these things were to be paid separately and all I was concerned with was getting some towels and a/c.

I am pretty happy with agoda now and I have booked dozens of hotels with them in Asia and despite the hotel costing €144.81 it actually cost me far less as I paid for most of it with my agoda points which I earned on previous bookings with agoda. I discovered since the Tune Hotel where I am staying is a subsidiary of Air Asia who are a huge low-cost airline in the region so they have just taken the typical approach of charging the smallest fee and then charging separately for every other little detail.