I had been googling for accomodation in London for an overnight stay for 21st November on quite a few occasions. Every time I googled, it remembered the dates I had entered previously. I then googled Travelodge and it came up with a really good price from Agoda. I assumed it would be for the dates I had googled with any previous occasions and so I unfortunately did not check this again and made the booking. After receiving my confirmation email on 17th November at 8.27am, I realised that it had booked for a completely different date being 24th November. Realizing my mistake which was literally within 5 minutes of making the booking, I immediately tried to cancel but it would not let me. I then emailed them straight away at 8.32am and also decided to call them. I explained the situation and was told that they will put the request through and I will have to wait for a reply. I received an email reply from them at 10.36 advising that the booking is non-refundable and cannot be modified or changed and that the hotel, being Travelodge, is unable to make the changes. I replied to say that I was not happy with this standard response and that surely something could be done as I had contacted them immediately and it wasn't like I was canceling at the last minute. I received their standard reply again advising that the hotel would not allow the cancelation. I replied that same day at 19.27 and requested that if it could not be cancelled, could an arrangement be made with Travelodge to perhaps change the date and perhaps change it to another Travelodge as the one in Marylebone did not have space for the dates we originally wanted and we could pay the the difference. I received their reply on 19th November saying that Travelodge did not approve the amendment request and that they are sticking to their cancelation policy, and that the booking is non-refundable and non-amendable. So according to them, it was all up to Travelodge and it seemed that they were not willing to budge. I then decided to contact Travelodge customer services, and was told that as I had booked through a 3rd party, I needed to email a different customer services, which I did promptly did also on 18th November. I explained that Agoda had advised that Travelodge was unwilling to change the booking and asked if they could consider to please at least let us change the booking dates and change to a different Travelodge and that we were happy to pay the difference. No one would loose anything and it would be a win-win for all of us. I was astounded to receive their reply brushing me off and saying that as I made the booking through a 3rd party, they were unable to assist me, due to the terms and conditions differing to their own. So basically, no one from either Agoda or Travelodge was willing to even consider trying to help me and kept saying that it was due to the policies of the other company, and so effectively leaving me stuck in the middle with absolutely no way to resolve this. It's very easy to brush someone off with the standard responses and hoping that they'll just go away. I am extremely disappointed that neither Agoda nor Travelodge was willing to actually actively take action to find a resolution, and wonder how many other people have been caught like this. Shocking customer service from both sides. I realise the mistake was mine but mistakes happen and surely there has to be a better way of dealing with issues like this and finding a compromise rather than giving the standard response to say they can't assist due to policies, especially when you've realised your mistake instantly and tried to rectify it within 5 minutes. I will not consider using Agoda ever again nor will I consider staying at Travelodge.
