Booking a hotel through an automated platform carries a risk that becomes painfully obvious when something goes wrong. A fully prepaid Agoda guest arrived at his supposed four-star Istanbul hotel to find the doors locked and the property out of operation. The guest, Dmytro, had a fully prepaid voucher and arrived with his 25 kg suitcase after a long trip. There was just one problem: the hotel door was locked and the hotel was not operating. Other guests had the same surprise, pulling their suitcases toward what they thought would be their accommodation, only to discover an obviously closed or possibly failed property. The atmosphere became increasingly tense, and some guests became so frustrated that a window was smashed. At that point, debating whether the property’s four-star description was accurate became less important than getting away from an uncomfortable situation. Dmytro left.
That should have been the beginning of Agoda solving the problem. Instead, it became the beginning of another problem.
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The AI customer-service maze
Without a roaming contract that allowed him to conveniently use his telephone, Dmytro went to a coffee shop, connected to free Wi-Fi, and attempted to contact Agoda. This should have been straightforward. No complicated investigation should have been necessary. His reservation was still showing as confirmed. There were plenty of options to click.
What appeared to be unavailable was the one thing he actually needed: a human being with the ability to understand the situation and make a decision. The Agoda chat system presented options for changing a reservation, making another reservation, and dealing with various other predetermined circumstances. But there seemed to be no obvious option saying: “The hotel you sold me is closed.” This is where the difference between artificial intelligence and actual decision-making becomes painfully obvious. AI can be extremely good at answering questions somebody anticipated, but it becomes remarkably helpless when reality presents a question that wasn’t included in the menu.
Dmytro called his friend Juergen Steinmetz, publisher of eTurboNews. Juergen tried accessing the booking from Germany. After an extensive discussion with Agoda’s automated system using its exclusive customer service chat feature for active bookings, there was still no obvious way to simply explain that the hotel was closed. Eventually, the option for “difficulties with check-in” seemed to be the closest available description. The solutions offered included reprinting the voucher and contacting the hotel by chat, email, or telephone. This would have been excellent advice if the receptionist simply couldn’t locate Dmytro’s reservation. It was considerably less useful when the problem was that the hotel itself wasn’t operating.
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Dmytro had already attempted to telephone the property. The call went to a disconnection notice. Somewhere in cyberspace, however, the reservation remained beautifully and confidently confirmed. Finding an Agoda telephone number became its own adventure. Then, clicking through options that did not really apply produced a list of international Agoda telephone numbers. Since Juergen was in Germany, he called the German number. Another maze of options followed. Eventually, he was advised to call the WhatsApp number contained in the booking. That number belonged to the hotel. The closed hotel. The hotel that wasn’t answering.
Germany calls America to reach India
At this point, the situation had the quality of a Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmare. There was still no obvious way to get a person on the telephone. Juergen eventually found a U.S. Agoda telephone number he had saved from an earlier occasion. From Germany, he called the U.S. number. Another automated system answered. But this time, after handling the AI and telephone menus, something increasingly valuable in today’s travel industry appeared behind the machinery: a human being.
The U.S. telephone number connected Juergen with an Agoda agent in India. But reaching a human being did not mean the problem could be solved immediately. The agent in India insisted on speaking directly with Dmytro, the stranded customer in Istanbul. She would not simply continue handling the case through Juergen in Germany, who was attempting to resolve the emergency on Dmytro’s behalf. That created yet another problem. Dmytro had no practical roaming option and was relying on Wi-Fi in Istanbul. To satisfy Agoda’s requirement, Juergen had to use an international calling option costing about $2.99 per minute to reach Dmytro and put him on speaker so the Agoda agent could speak with him directly.
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Consider the geography of this customer-service solution. A traveler in Istanbul had booked a hotel through Agoda. The hotel was closed. His friend in Germany called an Agoda telephone number in the United States. That call reached an Agoda agent in India. The agent in India then required Juergen in Germany to telephone the stranded traveler in Istanbul at approximately $2.99 per minute so everybody could establish that the traveler standing outside a closed hotel actually had a problem. If global connectivity was the objective, mission accomplished. If efficiently helping a stranded customer was the objective, the results were somewhat less impressive. Only after the agent was satisfied by speaking directly with Dmytro was Juergen allowed to continue the discussion. By then, simply obtaining customer service had itself become an expensive part of the travel problem.
After approximately 20 minutes on hold, four alternative hotels were offered. There was another problem. According to Juergen, every alternative property offered had lower ratings and lower rates than the closed property Agoda had sold. This wasn’t what Dmytro considered a comparable replacement. Dmytro, meanwhile, did something remarkably old-fashioned. He solved the problem himself. He booked himself into a Hyatt property in another area, away from the tension surrounding the closed hotel and the upset guests outside. Agoda ultimately offered to refund the original booking and add approximately $10 for the trouble.