AGODA.COM

Originally established in Thailand, Agoda is an online travel agency based in Singapore.  Agoda, which can be searched in 38 languages,  currently lists 940,924 properties including hotels, resorts, b&bs and even home stays. Competitive rates on flights can easily be found using it’s flight search tool. It also has a popular phone app that is easy to use.

Accommodations

Agoda’s website is stunning, with spectacular images of cities and locations around the world inviting the viewer to click and explore suggested destinations. If for instance, you want to consider a trip to Kuala Lumpur, you would click on that image and you will be connected to not only the full inventory of properties, but also a description of the city, which may contain a bit of history and background (Island Profiles style!), descriptions of neighborhoods and attractions and the accommodations most convenient to those areas. You will also see windows with  traveler reviews and recent bookings by time and location. Besides the recommended explorations, there is an extensive list of cities at the bottom of the page which includes most other places you might want to go. Again, a search of any of the destinations will bring up the same features just mentioned.

A search of New York showed 1150 hotels, Las Vegas, 303 hotels and a search of Cabo Verde brought up 357.  My impression was that the site is particularly strong in Asia, but a search for Salt Lake City brought up extensive listings including home stays and hotels in every category proving to me that it is strong worldwide. Filters for price, rating, neighborhood, property name or Agoda recommendation make the search easy and fun.

Flights

The home page will give you the choice of rooms or flights in a large search bar.  As with the accommodations search, the flight search is easy to navigate and offers numerous filter options. On the left bar, you can filter by carrier, alliance, booking provider and more.  The prices on my search for Salt Lake City were surprisingly low and included ‘hacker fares’, which allow you to book 2 one-way tickets on different airlines separately, saving money in the process.

Phone App

I installed the Agoda app on my iphone.  The app also has gorgeous background images, offers searches in 38 languages (and a correspondingly huge amount of currency choices), allows you to track your history and favorites and has search tools for points and promotions.

PointsMax Program

The PointsMax program allows you to earn loyalty points that can be applied to 31 existing loyalty programs including United , Delta, Singapore Airlines, American, The 1 Card, and more.

I recommend getting to know Agoda. It’s a highly rated (top 6 by Skift) service with excellent reviews and easy and fun to use.