An unfortunate incident today with Agoda Online Travel.  This is a site I've used once before to make a reservation for a hotel in Hong Kong. Unfortunately on that occasion we had to cancel. Agoda's cancellation policy for this booking meant that we lost US$15 on the booking, but I figured that was a reasonable penalty to pay as an administrative fee. Overall I found the service easy to use and thought highly of Agoda (at the time).

A couple of days ago I booked another hotel in Hong Kong and yet again - a change in plans meant that we needed to cancel this booking too. However this time I was stunned to discover that we would loose the FULL AMOUNT of the booking.

At the time I made the reservation - I mistakenly assumed that the cancellation policy we'd used on our previous booking - was an Agoda site-wide policy. I didn't realise that the cancellation policy can be different between bookings. Ok - you could argue that would seem logical.. but I was caught out for a couple of reasons.

Firstly - the link to the cancellation policy is at the bottom of the page and as in the screen shot attached (click to view the larger image) - says... Please click here for 'Cancellation Policy'. It's missing a couple of important words. I think it should say - "Please click here for the Cancellation Policy for THIS BOOKING.".

Secondly - on three of the four step page process - you have to scroll down to see this link.

I think the cancellation policy should be displayed right there on the page - or at the least a warning message during the booking process that explains clearly that the cancellation policy can be different between hotels and bookings.

For example - I went back to review the cancellation policy for the exact same hotel, on the exact same dates - and the policy now indicated that only the first evening would be forfeited in the event of a cancellation - and that any remaining nights would be refunded. Hmmm....

Ok -so I don't have a problem with the cancellation policies per se. If we're getting discount rates, I'm prepared to lose some flexibility in changes or cancellation. However I think Agoda owes it to its customers to make it much clearer that these policies can be different between bookings. They should WARN their customers in particular when a booking is totally non-refundable.

What's more - and what made this particular incident a sour one - is that when I tried to explain my concerns to a supervisor at the Agoda call centre in Bangkok - the conversation (from the Agoda side) quickly descended into an argument about who's fault this was - and that other sites operate the same way, and so I was to blame. That wasn't really the point of the call. What I wanted was recognition of the problem. As far as I could tell, they were getting good feedback, and they could have used this as an opportunity to improve their services in a way that would help to build trust and reputation, as apposed to reducing it.

The old used-car sales tactics of 'fine print' that's hard to read, find, or subject to misinterpretation really don't belong on a modern Web site today. Too much is at stake. Reputation travels farther and faster than before.

So.. Agoda - if I can get passed your argumentative customer service supervisor in Bangkok - please change this single but important link on your site to "Please click here for the Cancellation Policy for this booking...". And if you really want to build trust - warn customers explicitly when the policy indicates that they are not allowed to change or cancel the reservation - without having to click on a link or open another window.

You can and should do better Agoda...