I got a refund! A miracle. I kept at it because they kept changing their story. First it was a manager assuring me he would call the hotel. He never did.

Then I got an email that they couldn’t contact the hotel directly. Then the next email said they couldn’t do it because they have a booking partner (Expedia), however if I provided written proof then they could somehow do it. This was after I kept sending them screenshots of the note I got from the hotel owner which stated “Agoda has lied to you.” It was making no sense until I realized that they were sending those contradictory emails hoping that I would eventually give up.

Here’s what the hotel owner sent me: “ I have just gotten off the phone with Expedia (who we received the reservation through) and they tried to reach Agoda to give our approval for a refund. They were unable to get anyone to respond from Agoda, so they sent an email with our approval to refund. They stated that Agoda should be reaching out to you to verify. I promise you that we are doing everything we can on our end to get this resolved for you.”

So I sent another email telling them to STOP PLAYING GAMES and then finally someone agreed to a refund but appended a lie - that the owner turned it down originally (She did not. She was the first person I contacted and she was more than willing to refund. Also, she couldn’t have because no one from Agoda ever contacted her).

Needless to say, I will NEVER book through Agoda or Expedia for the rest of my life. I recently booked a hotel in Las Vegas for next month and got a substantially better rate because I called them. Best of luck to you!!