In April 2017, the Tourism Minister of Thailand called for Agoda among others to drop illegal and unregistered hotels. [24] Agoda was the primary company criticized, and its success is part of what led the Ministry of Tourism & Sports to create a competitive hotel booking website. [25]
In December 2017, Agoda initially refused to give a refund to a customer that booked a non-existent hotel. Agoda eventually paid a refund following a fraud complaint filed with the Thai government. [28]
In 2018, Agoda cooperated with the Taipei City Government's request to remove illegal and unregistered Taipei hotels from its listings. [29]
In same year, Agoda faced legal action from the Turkish Travel Agencies Association due to alleged unfair competition. [30] It faced a potential ban as part of this lawsuit. [31]
In 2019, Agoda was criticized for difficulties with customers removing their homes from the website. The customers cited customer service issues. [32]
Surge in Booking Failures in Japan
Source: [33]
On November 18, 2024, Route Inn Hotels [ ja ], a major hotel chain in Japan, issued a warning regarding room reservations sold through overseas booking sites such as Agoda. They noted issues such as being unable to confirm reservations, discrepancies in reservation details, and rooms being sold at significantly higher prices than those set by the hotel. [34]
On June 16, 2025, Toyoko Inn, another major hotal chain in Japan, also issued a warning on its official website, stating that some of the hotel room allocations provided to partner sites had been resold on overseas booking platforms such as Agoda, leading to problems. [35] On June 19, Fuji Dream Airlines, Japanese regional airline, also issued a warning, reporting troubles with airline tickets purchased through Agoda, which is not a contracted travel agency. [36]
Furthermore, several issues have been reported regarding Agoda, including changing a room plan from "one night with dinner" to "one night with two meals" without the accommodation provider's consent, accepting reservations for smoking rooms at entirely non-smoking properties, and inflating accommodation fees. [37] Other issues reported in Japanese news media include reservation information not being communicated to the accommodation provider or being transmitted incorrectly, resulting in the proper rooms not being secured; rooms being sold at significantly higher prices than the hotel's listed rates; bookings being sold as non-refundable; and reservations being canceled by Agoda just days before the scheduled stay. [38]
In response to these problems, Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) determined these actions to be breaches of obligation and issued a business improvement request to Agoda in March 2025. [39]
On June 24, 2025, Yoshiharu Hoshino, CEO of Hoshino Resorts, posted on Twitter (X), quoting a Kyodo News report [39] on the JTA's improvement request to Agoda. He commented, "Hoshino Resorts has no contract with the online travel agent AGODA, but there have been frequent cases where guests who booked through AGODA arrive and are unable to secure a room. Just recently, a guest who had booked through AGODA showed up at a hotel that was closed for maintenance. There is clearly a problem with AGODA's system". [40] [41]
According to an independent survey conducted by Nikkei , about 20% of Agoda users have experienced some sort of trouble, such as "the hotel they thought they had booked was not actually reserved", "their reservation was canceled without consent", or "the airline ticket did not match the conditions at the time of purchase". Furthermore, about half of those who consulted Agoda about such issues were simply told to handle the matter themselves. [42]
On July 17, 2025, Agoda CEO Omri Morgenshtern issued a statement addressing the "phantom inventory" issue, announcing that Agoda had ceased handling inventory from specific third-party suppliers identified as the cause of the troubles. He also outlined measures such as the introduction of AI-based pre-monitoring systems and the strengthening of management systems for third-party suppliers. [43] On the previous day, July 16, Japan Tourism Agency Commissioner Shigeki Murata stated at a press conference that the agency would continue to monitor the situation and the progress of the improvement measures. [44]
