Agoda

Asian sister taking the world on a twirl!   Agoda is the Asian sister company of the well-known travel site Booking.com, offering services ranging from booking hotels & homes, flights, and airport transfer. It is considered one of the world’s leading online hotel reservation agencies, allowing consumers to book services with miscellaneous companies while aiding users to look for the best rate possible.

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Michael Kenny and Robert Rosenstein are the co-founders of Agoda.com. Preceding to Agoda, Michael had 2 other online hotel reservation sites, PlanetHoliday.com and PrecisionReservation.com but in 2003 he combined both these websites and formed Agoda, launching in 2005. By 2007, Priceline Group – the parent company of Booking.com – acquired Agoda, thus making it their Asian sister company. It is also much easier to book hotels and flights through Agoda as users are not required to leave the platform to generate a booking, unlike Booking.com whereupon selection users are lead to the official company website for completion of the final confirmation.  

Why did Robert start Agoda?   When he first started there were already several online sites offering hotel reservation services in Asia, each specializing in different sectors. Their idea was to construct a website on a global scale, to deliver better deals and offer additional choices via a user-friendly online reservation system.  

What are the things Robert learned from the process of expanding Agoda?   In an interview with Tech Cocktail, Robert said that during this time of constant change and growth, a person needs to continue to reinvent oneself and the company. The things required in a small company are very much different compared to when the company is ready to be acquired. As Agoda is a large public company, there are always new methods to learn, different skills to work on. People also need to be hired at the right time for growing the business, which requires attracting individuals that portray new and various kinds of talent. With the company evolving it was required to make organizational alterations. It means taking opinions from others and have to be open to new ideas.  

How come Agoda is based in Thailand?    Robert was always fond of Thailand ever since he went on a backpacking trip in 1991. In 1998, Robert invested in one of the first online-based hotel businesses in Thailand namely PlanetHoliday.com and PrecisionReservation.com. Those two websites combined to form Agoda. Around 2002 Robert and his wife moved to Thailand making it their home away from home. Currently, Agoda operates in many countries, just like any other internet business, and it is reasonably easy for Robert to be based in Bangkok and still maintain connectivity with their other operation all around the world. Also, the unique culture and assortments of foods and considerate people have attracted Robert to permanently move to Thailand.

  Agoda has expanded to offer a global network of around 2 million properties in approximately 200 countries and territories all around the world. It is available in 38 languages, and their app which is available in both IOS and android is a one-stop destination that is user friendly and simple for consumers to book everything in one app. In 2015 Agoda partnered with Adyen to offering customers various payment methods, as Southeast Asia is a very fragmented region with lots of different countries, as a result, payment methods are varied.  

Agoda makes traveling easier for everyone, offering reasonable prices for hotels and flights. They offer every consumer something at their desired budget range and for every travel occasions. Agoda eagerly assists individuals to travel and aids them to the best of their ability. They aim to cater services to fulfil their customers’ needs rapidly and easily, from the moment they are researching their desired destinations through to doing payments, providing 24/7 customer support services, all available within the state of the art app.   Official Website: https://www.agoda.com/?gclid=%7Baff_sub%3D2%7D&cid=1844104

Written by: Ramisha Rahman  

Reference: Skift, Agoda News.      

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