How Do I Cancel My Agoda Bookings?Travelers, at times, have to cancel their hotel bookings due to different reasons. Recently, it’s been the COVID-19 pandemic that has forced cities, and even whole countries, to impose lockdowns and travel bans. While I am writing this, state of emergency has been declared in Metro Manila, enhanced community quarantine has been declared and domestic air, land and sea access in the city is suspended until April 14: Metro Manila Lockdown Begins. And this lockdown is currently being discussed whether it will be lifted or extended: Gov't Sets Guidelines on Extension or Lifting of Luzon Lockdown. Due to this, travelers need to cancel their trips and flights and hotel bookings have to be rebooked, rescheduled or totally cancelled.
Before we discuss how to cancel your hotel bookings with Agoda, let’s identify different types of bookings. In terms of payments, there are three types of bookings – 1) pay now, 2) pay later and 3) pay at the hotel.
There are two types of bookings when it comes to refunds – 1) refundable and 2) non-refundable.
Now, answering the most important questions amidst this COVID-19 lockdowns and travel bans. Am I able to refund a non-refundable Agoda booking due to travel bans? Most definitely yes. Since you are unable to travel to the destination country or leave your home country due to government restrictions, your hotel or Agoda has to refund your money. But what if the destination country or my home country is not on lockdown but I have decided not to push through with the trip? Now, this highly depends on your hotel. Our trip to Vietnam was supposed to happen 2nd week of February and at that time, there was no lockdown in Vietnam or the Philippines but we decided not to push through. Here are the steps that we took to be able to get a refund even without the government restrictions. Note that these steps can be taken for non-refundable bookings which have already been paid (whether Pay Now or Pay Later bookings):
If my booking is non-refundable but says Pay at the hotel, do I need to take the same steps? Just to be sure, yes. Since it is non-refundable, my apprehension is that Agoda might charge this to your credit card if you are unable to pay at the hotel. It will be the same process as the previous one.
What do I do if the hotel does not agree to free cancellation? I actually experienced this with one of the hotels that I booked in Laguna and to make things worse, this happened during the lockdown. Obviously, we are unable to push through with the trip even if we want to since we are no longer able to leave Metro Manila. The booking was on a Pay Now basis and was non-refundable. Instead of cancelling the trip and forfeiting , we opted to request to rebook our 2-night stay to August 2020. At least this way, you don’t lose your money entirely. Here are the steps that we took:
How many days before the trip should I be contacting the hotel? Just to be on the safe side and if possible at all, do this a few weeks before your trip so these changes are made before the date of your stay in the hotel. How do I apply for refund if I am still within the free cancellation period? If you have already paid for your hotel booking but have decided to cancel within the free cancellation period, you can just go straight to your Agoda app and cancel the booking from there. This process is much more straightforward and you don’t have to contact your hotel for any confirmation. Here is the process:
How do I contact my hotel to request for a refund? There are several ways to contact your hotel, depending on where they are available:
How do I contact Agoda to request for this refund? Once your hotel has agreed to refund or rebook, then you can try contacting Agoda through these ways:
If my Agoda booking is refundable or says free cancellation, how do I cancel?
If this is the case, then you can proceed to cancel through the app’s self-service option without the need to contact Agoda’s customer service or the hotel. How long will my refund take? To be honest, I still haven’t received my refunds until now. It would really depend on how quick it will be processed by the hotel and by your bank. But based on their responses, the processing time takes about 2-3 banking cycles which means 2-3 months from the day it has been processed. |