Agoda -Experience of a Hotel Dispute

[Guest]

I booked a hotel in a well known hotel chain, in southern Europe.

Upon arrival, I was asked for a few Euros for the City Tax.     I refused and in no uncertain terms told them my booking was including taxes.     Which it was, as I'd checked the booking confirmation before hand.    I don't care what the taxes are, but the hotels need to be honest about them.  

They said the booking confirmation specifies there is an additional city tax payable, so I got the document out and asked them to show me where.   They weren't interested in doing so.   Knowing they were lying.

The following night, my keycard access to my room was blocked. So to get access to my room, I had to pay the City Tax.     I guess this is what mafia shake downs look like.   However, I thought the mafia operated mainly in the south of the country, not the north.

I then fired an e-mail off to Agoda, requesting a refund of the city tax, since the booking was very clearly supposed to be including taxes & charging taxes is not respecting the "contract".

Agoda responded requesting various additional information, which I supplied. 

Agoda then offered me a refund in the form of credit against a future booking, which would expire after 6 months.  I refused and insisted upon cash.    I also threatened a chargeback from my credit card company.     

A couple of hours later, Agoda responded stating that the money will be credited back to my credit card account, within 30 days.  

 

[vinapu]

3 hours ago, z909 said:

 However, I thought the mafia operated mainly in the south of the country, not the north.

 

from your narrative it seems to be land of Verdi and Mario Balotelli.

I actually had similar , to  a degree , experience with hotel in Naples in Oct last year , also booked through Agoda but difference was that 2 or 3 euros of city tax were supposed to be collected by hotel and it was clearly stated  in the booking confirmation  

[fedssocr]

I was just looking at Agoda last night for hotels in NYC. And you had to check on the booking screen to see what was included in what you pay Agoda and what you would also have to pay at the hotel. Some places included taxes in the Agoda price but other separated them out to be paid at the hotel. It's needlessly confusing and inconsistent. And don't get me started on these ridiculous "destination fees" that so many hotels have started demanding on top of the room rate for things that should be included in the rate. It's all quite maddening. I get that the past couple of years have been tough, but they should be honest in their practices instead of all of these extra mandatory fees they dishonestly pile on.

[tm_nyc]

z909, maybe you should leave a review on tripadvisor to alert other customers, if it is clear that the hotel was trying to rip you off.  I have relied on agoda for hotel reservations in SEAsia & never had a problem so, sorry for your difficulties with them.

[PeterRS]

51 minutes ago, tm_nyc said:

z909, maybe you should leave a review on tripadvisor to alert other customers, if it is clear that the hotel was trying to rip you off.  I have relied on agoda for hotel reservations in SEAsia & never had a problem so, sorry for your difficulties with them.

You haven't had a problem in SE Asia because I don't think any countries/cities have special additional taxes. Tokyo has, though. In addition to the standard government consumption tax (VAT) and hotel's usual service charge, there is a special city nightly charge of around $1 - $2. The last is almost always collected by the hotel in cash and does not always appear on booking sites. I understand it is some sort of tourism-related charge.

I have been to New York many times over many years and have always had a city per night charge. Sometimes this is prepaid and sometimes added on check out.

I have also been in European countries where a special city nightly tax has been levied. As I understand it, these charges are often added with only a short period of advance notice and the nightly rate can also change without much notice. As the website https://ec.europa.eu points out, "In many cases occupancy taxes are payable in person, and cannot be included in the pre-paid price of the accommodation." It adds that these nightly occupancy taxes are being adopted by more countries.

Niggling little things like this also piss me off if I am not told about them/do not know about them in advance. If I was to register a complaint on Tripadvisor, I'm not sure where I would make it because it is not the fault of the hotel. Is there a special agoda section for complaints? But considering the amounts are so small relative to the actual cost of the rooms, making a fuss over it seems to me a waste of time and effort.