I have just returned from a 4 days "vacation" in boracay and it was horrible! I constantly travel out of town every quarter and in the last 6yrs of travelling,i always book,reserve,pay half downpayment at least a month before my trip. For my boracay trip w/ my husband, parents& 3 friends,i paid 50% downpayment for my hotel accomodation at cez manor resort bar and restaurant (station 2 balabag boracay island,malay aklan). The owner/proprietor MARIVIC SY MONTEJO issued us a receipt of 14,400pesos dated march 20 for our booking in her hotel on APRIL 19-22. The package is for 4 rooms,4days,hotel transfers to and from the ferry.When we got there,no van/hotel staff fetched us.We had to rent our own multicab for 250pesos to get to the hotel.Since the hotel was not near the road,we had to carry our heavy bags,go through the maze to look for the hotel,had to make 3 stops to ask the locals for direction and when we finally arrived at CEZ MANOR...they couldnt give us a room!!!
Marivic,the owner, denied having received our deposit,stating that she only received 10,000pesos and she can only give us a room the following day because their hotel is booked!It was already 2:30pm,we havent eaten lunch! Good thing i brought the receipt that was issued to us but still,they couldnt give us a room.They transferred us to another hotel and asked us to transfer back to CEZ MANOR the following a day.THe hotel that we were transferred to is Sunset Hotel and the rate is higher.Marivic assured us that she will shoulder the additional rate since its their fault & that there's loopholes in their booking system.
On the day we checked out,our bill reflected only 10,000pesos downpayment instead of 14,400pesos.They also charged us for the additional rate of Sunset Hotel (700pesos each person).Since we refused to pay ,their receptionist named LOSLYN CUSTIDIO refused to let us go.There was already exchanged of bad words between us and their staff,so we asked to talk to the owner.The owner was supposedly in aklan and the staff said the owner didnt inform them that she will shoulder for the additional rate at Sunset HOtel.We had a plane to catch and they were holding us.To settle things,we had to call 2 Tourist Police and thats the time the CEZ MANOR staff calmed down.We went to the police station to report what happened and CEZ MANOR staff was forced to acknowledge the receipt they issued of our deposit made.
It was a very horrible and stressful experience.Ive been to bali,carribean cruise and not even once was i fooled by foreign hotels/staff.I couldn't believe that fellow filipinos would do such things!I hope tourism officers would take action on this.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
5 July 2007
This is written in response to a review of our resort entitled Worst vacation (April 25, 2007) That at the onset, we would like to make it clear that the guests who made the subject review transacted with a freelance travel agent. On March 2, 2007, their agent made a reservation in our resort for one (1) room to be occupied on April 19 to 23, 2007 and for three (3) rooms to be occupied on April 20 to 24. On March 7, 2007, the said agent confirmed the reservation with a deposit of P10,800. This is evidenced by a deposit slip of Metrobank, dated March 7, 2007. This is contrary to the claim of the reviewer that they deposited the amount of P14,400. Their agent promised to our staff to present the deposit slip representing the amount of P3,600 later upon the check-in of the guests. Our staff issued an Official receipt in good faith and with trust and confidence on their agent that the amount was already deposited by his clients. When we later verified the said deposit slip in amount of P3,600, there was no such transaction and the said deposit slip was never verified by a bank teller. Never even was such transaction reflected in our bank account.
That on April 19, seven of the guests arrived. The reservation was only for one room, and good only for two (2) persons with a maximum capacity of four. One of the guests insisted that they have made a reservation of four rooms instead of one. They also confronted us that no one from our staff fetched them from the ferry. Our staff explained to them that they never made an arrangement with our staff for such services and neither did their agent. Our staff politely told them that the reservation was only for accomodations and none for their demanded services. We advised them that should they have any complaints, they should address the same to their agent and not to us because we are not privy to any of their arrangements or agreements.
Since only one room was reserved from April 19 to 23, 2007, Our resort cannot accomodate their other companions. We instead facilitated and helped them transfer to Sunset Hotel resort to accomodate them.
Our resort however strongly deny having promised them to reimburse the difference on the room rate of the resort where they transferred to as stated in paragraph 3 of their review as such fault could not be attributed to us. We politely reminded them that they should direct their complaints to their agent.
We tried to contact their agent all this time to clarify the matter and explain to iron out the situation but he was nowhere to be found. His mobile phone likewise could not be reached.
The guests refused to pay for the difference in the rates in Sunset Resorts and were already causing a commotion in the resort. Since that the owner of Sunset Resort is a friend, we decided that our resort pay for the difference so that they could no longer be any disturbance to the other guests of Sunset Resort.
Everything that has been stated in this management response is backed up by documentary and testimonial evidence and we are inviting all those concerned to examine such evidences so that our name and goodwill which we have so fervently protected and upheld will not be tarnished.
Still, we are grateful for any review that we may receive, whether they be positive or negative in the hope that it would challenge us more to improve our services
We hope that this has clarified the matter.
Thank you
The management
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC
