Paul Benjamin
12. toukokuuta 2025
This is a shame, because we've stayed here quite a few times (we think maybe 10 times) and on each occasion the positives have outweighed the obvious negatives. For a start, this is a very good value hotel. The beds are comfy, the rooms reasonably well appointed (for this budget range) and the staff are friendly and mostly competent. AND this review has NOTHING to do with the restaurant downstairs, which we love and where the staff are fabulous.
ALSO we picked a terrible weekend. Mother's Day (American) and the weekend before elections mean the hotel was PACKED and packed with kids. Something about kids in this country? Their parents let them behave like animals: screaming and shouting and playing their damned devices at full volume at the dinner table. Sounded like we had a herd of elephants upstairs. The lifts are incapable of coping with enormous numbers going up to the rooftop pool, down to the restaurant. Not so bad if you're on the 5th floor and can just walk. Eighth a little too far to be comfortable at my age. And they're the spiteful type of lift! You know, the one arrives and is full so you say you'll take the next one. Only the next one goes right past the 8th floor. Then they both go right back up to the rooftop pool and... that's when you walk and beat both lifts to the ground floor. The inroom massage or the nail spa seem to be so hard to book. And as for the pool... I tried three times but on each occasion it was crammed with kids. Literally unable to swim more than a metre or two. And the kicker? The day before elections in the Philippines is DRY... not even a glass of wine to drown my sorrows.
I think what was most disappointing is that the hotel's customer database didn't even recognise that we're very regular customers. Sigh. Sounds petulant? Maybe, but the last few times we stayed, the staff had recognised us and said "Welcome back!" and that they wouldn't need to take a deposit from us. This time, new staff and "2,000 pesos" please... I mean we ran up more than that on our bill. It just feels like that low hanging customer relations fruit is still dangling there. We're going to try a different hotel for the next staycation. Time to move on.
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