The pros of getting married in the province outweigh the cons. Perhaps the biggest challenge from my wedding last year was helping book 120++ people to different hotels around Bacolod City. That was when I discovered a service called Agoda c/o my wife. “Cheaper rates,” she said. Compared to other services, Agoda is mainly Asia-based and boasts the most number of hotels within Asia, which is its main point of focus.
I’ve been a fan of the service (on the desktop) and have been avidly using it to regularly book for personal trips since 2012. Agoda played a big part in budgeting our trip to Seoul last year as we were essentially ticking off hotels that were beyond the PHP 5,000 a night, then later found out that most of tourist places were located slightly north of our hotel. Meep. Our fault.
If you’re on board with the whole mobile app environment, Agoda is also available on iOS, Windows Phone and Android. The booking procedure has been simplified on mobile, allowing you to indicate your “travel specs” and then choosing a hotel based on the location you’re headed towards. Or if you’re already at your destination and looking for a quick overview of the area, you can choose a hotel based on vicinity. I found out that as a bonus the mobile version offers exclusive sales that you don’t find on the desktop.
In the mobile version, there’s a quick filter for ticking off whether you want a hotel with WiFi, a swimming pool (gym), or smoking rooms.
One caveat: although this does not apply to all hotels, a small number of establishments add VAT only after you make the final booking deal before entering your credit card information. So it would be a good idea to play it safe the next time you book using their service.
