Two people separately booked the same Johor Baru hotel using the travel website Agoda and both had their bookings "abruptly" cancelled by Agoda.

In September, Stomp contributor A had snagged two rooms at the St Giles Southkey at a "very good promotional price" - $7.

"I had booked rooms for the March school holidays in 2024," said the Stomp contributor.

"Agoda claimed that the hotel was the one not honouring the rates. However, as I had booked it through Agoda, they should have done something to honour the deal regardless. E-mails sent to them were futile with them just claiming that they had cancelled the deal with no charges."

She shared a screenshot of Agoda's reply, which said: "We understand you wish to know if Agoda can honour the deals, and it is something we wanted to help you with.

"We are sorry to inform you that St Giles Southkey has advised us that there has been a significant error in the rate they provided, due to which your booking cannot be accommodated.

"Unfortunately, we have tried our best to push the property to accept the current rates, but sadly, our negotiations to convince them to honour the booking have been unsuccessful."

The Stomp contributor said: "This is very unfair to us customers who have already bought train tickets, travel insurance, booked leave, et cetera to prepare for the trip."

Similarly, Stomp contributor Karen had also made her hotel booking in September for early 2024.

"The price I paid for the hotel stay was lower than usual and it is also during the Chinese New Year weekend next year," recounted Karen, who bought train tickets after receiving a confirmation from Agoda.

Then in October, she received an email from Agoda that said: "We truly apologise to inform you that the property has advised us that they are unable to accommodate your booking as they are experiencing technical issues with bookings received from online travel platforms, including Agoda."

Agoda added that the Stomp contributor's booking would be cancelled free of charge.

After she wrote back that she was "puzzled" by the reason given for the cancellation, Agoda replied: "We sincerely apologise for any disruption to your travel plans. As per Agoda's terms of use, section 7.6 does grant us the right to reject booking requests and cancel confirmed bookings without specific reasons."

Karen told Stomp: "I am aghast with such action from such a big company like Agoda as they did not honour the hotel bookings."

"I have to either forfeit my transport charges or pay a higher rate to book another hotel."

Did she also book a room for $7 like the other Stomp contributor?

"I booked two rooms at RM220.50 ($64) per room, not $7," said Karen.

Stomp has contacted Agoda for more info.

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This article was first published in Stomp. Permission required for reproduction.