This is pretty surprising, considering how many people use this website for their hotel bookings!
Three months ago on 21st August, a woman from Thailand named Sulawan Luckchonlatee was scrolling through the popular hotel-booking site, Agoda.com, when she clicked the “book and pay” button instead of the “back” button on the app, making an accidental booking at a hotel in Bangkok.
The booking was made automatically because she is a registered user and has her credit card information saved on the website. Soon after she realised what happened, Sulawan reportedly contacted the website in efforts to get the booking cancelled and get a refund, but they refused to refund her, claiming that her booking was valid and non-refundable.
So, since her booking could not be refunded, she decided to check out the hotel, which was listed on the booking website as “Private Club in the Heart of Bangkok” on Sukhumvit Soi 43.
Source: Coconuts Bangkok
However, when she arrived at the address, she found that the hotel didn’t exist! Instead, there was a building that looked like a private house.
Sulawan suspects the photos of the hotel featured on the website were actually of another hotel on the other side of the street, according to Coconuts.
Source: Khaosod English
What was even more suspicious was that the hotel’s address didn’t seem legitimate, since the district was not specified.
In a series of Facebook videos, Sulawan documented the whole ordeal and even stated that Agoda refused to refund the money and that they did not even provide the hotel’s phone number so she could contact them. Wah, so fishy!
Source: Facebook
Source: Facebook
Sulawan’s story was then shared on a local Facebook page, Queen of Spades, which garnered everyone’s attention.
After having enough, she decided to file a fraud complaint with the Thai government. Only then did Agoda finally agree to refund her 150,000 Baht (approx. RM18,740) within 10 days. However, it seems like they didn’t apologise to Sulawan for what happened and they do not plan to put out a statement addressing the matter, either.
Well, it looks like we could all learn from Sulawan’s unfortunate experience. Next time you use any hotel-booking website, be sure to be extra vigilant or you could lose a lot of money!
Also read: Man Rents Out Ampang Apartment Via Airbnb, Turns Out to Be Worst Nightmare
