Agoda

What is Agoda?

Agoda is an accommodation booking platform that lets you find the cheapest rates worldwide for rooms, hostels, hotels, vacation rentals, and city apartments. It also offers discounted stays at over 2.9 million hotels and 1.2 million private homes in more than 200 countries. Like other popular accommodation booking platforms such as Booking and Airbnb, it lets people rent their private homes. Because people can rent out their private property, Agoda has a wide range of properties available; penthouses, tree huts, and private luxury villas can be chosen as vacation rentals on Agoda.com.

Where is Agoda from

Agoda’s headquarters are in Singapore. However, its operational headquarters are in Bangkok, Thailand; this makes sense as the company was founded by two school friends in Phuket, Thailand. The company also has offices in 35 other countries, a support team in 19 languages, and employees from more than 90 nationalities. The founders of Agoda are Michael Kenny and Robert Rosenstein. Michael Kenny is a native of Long Island, USA, and Robert Rosenstein holds a B.A. from Hamilton College.

Who owns Agoda?

Booking Holdings Inc., another travel conglomerate, currently owns Agoda. Booking acquired the Asia-based travel conglomerate in 2007, although there is no public data on the amount of money involved. Robert Rosenstein, who was the CEO and chairman of Agoda, still plays a significant role as the strategic advisor to the CEO of Booking Holdings Inc.

What services does Agoda offer?

Although the company started as simply a travel booking platform in 2007 when it was founded it currently also offers other services to users such as:

Hotels and Homes

This is Agoda’s oldest and primary service. This accommodation search engine can be used as a hotel or vacation home booking platform. Properties range from budget hotels to luxury villas with private pools.

Transportation

Transportation is one of the newest services that Agoda offers. You can book transportation options worldwide, including transportation options such as bus, train, airplane, airport transfer, ferries, and even car rental.

Apartments

Agoda’s apartment option is similar to Airbnb’s. The booking platform allows users to book private apartments offered by hosts.

eSIM

An eSIM is a new service offered by multiple travel companies, specific eSIM companies, and even internet banks such as Revolut. It allows you to use a digital SIM card for countries across the world instead of having to buy a new one for each country you visit. Agoda also offers this service.

Agoda Alternatives

Although Agoda offers many advantages compared to other booking platforms, many provide the same solution, and some even have a more significant user base than Agoda. These are some of the alternatives and competitors to agoda.com.

Booking

Booking is not a real competitor of Agoda as it is Agoda’s parent company. However, this is one of the platforms most similar to Agoda. Booking also offers hotels, city apartments, rental cars, and transportation.

Kayak

Kayak acts as a meta-search engine. It aggregates deals from multiple travel websites, including hotels, planes, and transportation. Kayak is a travel aggregator, and Agoda is both a travel aggregator and a travel agency, as it also directly contacts the hotels and vacation rentals themselves.

Airbnb

As we said before, Airbnb is similar to Agoda, offering private apartments and houses through private hosts. However, Airbnb also provides Airbnb experiences through which users can book tours and workshops. Furthermore, Airbnb also caters to a different audience: people who are looking for a long-term stay.

Trip

Trip is another platform that competes with Agoda. It also offers hotel and flight bookings. However, Trip focuses on last-minute bookings and the Asian market, specifically the Chinese market.

Expedia

Expedia is the last big competitor to Agoda that we have included in the list. Like Agoda, Expedia offers comprehensive options such as hotels, flights, car rentals, and even complete vacation packages. You can use Expedia to create bundled deals, but this is not possible with Agoda. However, Agoda offers an eSIM service, which Expedia doesn’t have yet.

Frequently Asked Questions About Agoda