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The Korea Communications Commission has drawn its sword against Agoda. Last month, the Korea Communications Commission began an investigation into whether there were any damages to users in the payment and refund procedures. Agoda is a travel platform headquartered in Singapore that sells various travel products. Along with Booking.com, it is notorious for its design patterns that pressure users. The main issue this time is that it deceived consumers by exposing information that is different from reality.
You will find the phrase 'free cancellation' in almost all areas of the service. However, refunds are like trying to find a star in the sky. Some flights and hotels cannot be cancelled for any reason. In many cases, you have to cancel directly with the seller, not Agoda, by email or phone. You will not get an immediate response and eventually give up after a long time.
When you select a room, it continuously displays the phrase "Hold price for 20 minutes." You can extend the time by pressing the button. It tells you that there is not much time left until the reservation is completed and that if you leave the page you are viewing, you cannot reserve the room and rate you have viewed. The user is worried that the price of the room he wants will be expensive, so he rushes to make the reservation and payment. However, the price does not change even after 20 minutes. Not only the time, but also the inventory limit and the activity of competing users make you doubt whether the information is real.
You can choose 'Pay later' at the payment stage. Users naturally understand that they will pay later with the amount they booked now, but the actual payment will incur additional costs. When paying the cost, there is no alternative, so they have no choice but to pay. When you choose to pay later, they are guided with ambiguous text. In the middle of the linked terms and conditions, you can find small text that states that a 5% fee will be charged for postpaid reservations. In addition, hidden taxes and service charges are added to the amount you see when you make the reservation, and the final payment amount increases like a snowball.
If illegality is confirmed in this investigation, fines of up to 1% of annual turnover may be imposed.
Every Tuesday morning, a designer with 16 years of experience curated Collect design trends.
