Agoda showing Less hotels available when booking through VA

[Airbumps]

Interesting one I've never noticed;

If I search for hotels through agoda.com in Oslo, Norway I get 78 hotels showing available. If I search through agoda.com/velocity (in order to actually get points) using the same search criteria, I get 19 matching hotels.

Why? What gives? Limiting my choice if I want to get points are you VA?!

 

[notzac]

Why? What gives? Limiting my choice if I want to get points are you VA?!

I assume it's Agoda doing the limiting - the ones that display when you search through the Velocity link will have enough of a profit for Agoda that they can buy the points from Velocity to give to you.

 

[MattJX]

I also noticed Agoda has its own rewards points program that doesn't seem available to Australia or combined with VA.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Not all hotels give VR FF rewards, that could be why the number of hotels drop, if you go deeper into http://www.agoda/virginaustralia. Than without VA at the end of the web address.
Same as Accor's frequent stay program, they will take your $ for stays at Ibis Budgets, but do not give points for stays at that hotel.
For the Aust opposition airline, (QF) in some cities, only 4 hotels will give you QF FF points.
Using Ibis Budget Sydney Airport as an example, if I were to book at Accor website, or directly with Ibis, its Aud$109.
But if I were to want Velocity points, via Agoda, I have pay Aud$119!

 

[dajop]

Also look at the agoda app. Last Friday booked a layover at KUL airport and I booked a $80 quoted room on the web page (with whatever rewards program you wanted) for only $70 via the mobile app.

 

[clarkkent]

I also noticed Agoda has its own rewards points program that doesn't seem available to Australia or combined with VA.

My Agoda account was opened before the Velocity tie up and the rewards system still works, but yes I don't think it's possible to merge it with my Velocity account.

 

[KCMil]

I agree that there are fewer hotels available, but for the main locations I use it for I do find that it is much cheaper than if I used other sites like hotelclub or hotelscombined. Agoda may not have the range but for my travels it seems cheapest. Got an amazingly cheap hotel in Edinburgh last year during the Edinburgh festival.

 

[Denali]

I like Agoda because of the points/WP bonus points but yes, often the hotel I want to book isn't a Virgin/Agoda hotel so I book direct with the Hotel.

Mayflower Park Hotel in Seattle is one such hotel at the moment, Ive had to book direct.

 

[AnthFlyer]

My Agoda account was opened before the Velocity tie up and the rewards system still works, but yes I don't think it's possible to merge it with my Velocity account.

But if you navigate to Agoda from the Virgin hotels booking page, does it get you points?

 

[notzac]

But if you navigate to Agoda from the Virgin hotels booking page, does it get you points?

You have to use the Hotels link from the VA site so that on the hotel booking in order to be able to enter your Velocity number during booking.

You can't get VA points and Agoda points for the same reservation I think..

 

[iambents]

At the final stage of booking through the VA portal you get the option of logging in with your Agoda account. My experience is that to date I have received both VA points and Agoda points for every booking. I've just used Agoda points to book a free four night stay. This might have changed as I haven't used in the last little while. They might have caught on to a loophole.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

If you play on the Agoda website, down the bottom of the booking, it will ask for your Velocity FF number.
That us how you tell them you are a Vrlocity member.
If you missed that, or booked without entering Velocity FF number, I think that you loose opportunity to gain Velocity points got that Agodz stay.

 

[a1ring23]

If you play on the Agoda website, down the bottom of the booking, it will ask for your Velocity FF number.
That us how you tell them you are a Vrlocity member.
If you missed that, or booked without entering Velocity FF number, I think that you loose opportunity to gain Velocity points got that Agodz stay.

I accidentally did this once and retro claimed it. Got the points in 2-4 weeks I think.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Ah.
Learn a new thing every time.
But now I know where to do booking, I will always book under agoda.*om/virginaustralia.
Don't quite like hotel club or hotels.*om anymore.
Asterix so no linking.

 

[henleybeach]

Sorry to bring up a old thread , but booking hotels via the velocity agoda link seems to have really gone down hill.
I have in the past book all my holiday hotels through this to maximize the points being a gold FF. The range of hotels on there has usually been good, the last three days I've been trying to book hotels in NYC, Montreal , Toronto for May 2016.
With NYC there is 920 hotels but agoda only lets you choose from 192 through the velocity link, Montreal had from memory 285 and only 10 were available to book and Toronto had about 290 and only letting you choose from 20. Unless my computer is playing up this has gone downhill a lot, there used to be so much more selection , there was a lot more variety then it is at the moment .for example , Earlier this year I booked accommodation for a town in Sri Lanka called Ella , a small town in the hills and that had heaps of options for a tiny place , so I don't know if velocity and agoda have tightened up their partnership??

 

[Ausbt]

There is definitely less choice when partnered with VA rather than direct with Agoda. Realistically you need to decide if points or wider choice is your priority. All my bookings are done inside the partnership and I've found Agoda to be fairly receptive to post-booking support, but no way are they going to credit you VA points if you don't use the partner website.

 

[Fiches Mouser]

You're right – there're not always there.

For me it usually goes:

1. Find a hotel I like (or have wanted to try) using Design Hotels, Tablet or Mr & Mrs Smith.
2. Check cheapest rates across sites using Trivago.
3. If VA/Agoda site has reasonable rate, will book through them, entering VFF number for a hearty points haul. If not there or rate is uncompetitive, I'll just go with the cheapest site.
4. If no decent independent hotels, it'll be Hilton/SPG/Hyatt.

I must say though, having just booked a number of hotels in Europe over Christmas, I've found most of them have been listed on the VA/Agoda site, with most showing rates cheaper or almost as cheap as Trivago's best deal. It is very lucrative points-wise when you can get them on Agoda.