Nice place!

Very low rate and I can sleep properly.

15 minutes walking ditance to white long beach...

Hello,

After reading the other stories it feels funny that yet another Austrian is writing a very positive review... But it's the only thing I can do, as I had a fantastic time in a great place!

All I can say is, that I spent ten wonderful days on Boracay in december and had a great time in Diniwid Beach Resort. To be fair, I wouldn't call it a resort - that is in fact slightly misleading - but it definitely is a great, simple and very conveniently located little place with very friendly, welcoming and helpful staff and owners. Some of the things that have been said are true (not directly at the beach, steep stairs, located on a hill, ...), all the negative feedback on the other hand I cannot confirm.

I contacted the place directly after doing my research and of course I thought there must be a catch after comparing the prices to other resorts on the island. Using my common sense I knew that I cannot expect a five star resort - but that impression is not given anywhere on their website anyway. The place looks like in the photos - you see what you get. I had a look at a few rooms/huts while I was there to choose my favorite for my next stay: all of them were nice, some had seaviews, some overlooked the very green valley with lots of palm trees. Just ask everything you wanna know before you go there and you will be fine and there shouldn't be any surprises.

Talking about the owners and staff: The owners actually invited me over for some breakfast to their own place and I found them - just like the rest of the staff - extremely friendly and helpful. Che-Che (who is actually a woman and not a guy like mentioned in one of the other reviews) was very friendly and tried to assist me as much as possible with making my stay a pleasant and memorable experience. All of them are great people.

The beach, which is actually only a stone's throw away, is very nice, not very crowded and has a fantastic beach bar with fantastic fruit shakes and a variety of delicious dishes. They let you use their sunbeds too - so there is your workaround to get your place in the sun although staying in a place without direct access to the beach...

All in all I had a great time and can highly reccommend the place to people who like to spend a great time in very basic, but very nice little bamboo huts - they have nice rooms with proper walls and roof too - so you really have the choice.

All the best to the team of Diniwid Beach Resort!

Kind regards,
Seppi

P.S.: ...and yes, we have a high standard of living in Austria and in Hong Kong - where I am currently living ;-)
P.P.S.: I actually stayed in the room with the "rock wall bathroom" - I thought it was hilarious and original.
P.P.P.S.: Of course I had a variety of little animal visitors, but show me one place in south-east asia where that is not the case...

Diniwid Beach resort-Disappointing and No Refund !

We travel quite a bit and have never dealt with people like this! Diniwid Beach Resort is a case of misrepresentation and had not disclosed their status of reconstruction. We booked our reservations online with Diniwid Beach Resort for five nights and paid by bank transfer. When we arrived at the so-called resort as pointed out by our driver. Oh please, they call this a resort? There's no signage and no manager on-site. A security guard on the beach took us through a dirty alleyway to the property and met Che-Che, a young man left in charge of the huts. Che-Che showed us the room we requested. The Sampaguita "A" room was not to our liking at all. We’ve seen a picture of the room online but it was unacceptable in person. Room was not clean, not all windows were screened, no mosquito net provided, the bathroom was dirty, looked unfinished and smelled of mold. There was no online photo of the bathroom--one of the bathroom walls was part of the hillside “open and dirty” We asked Che-Che to call Teresa so we could talk to her. She refused to give us a refund, not even partial. She said that the money had already been spent on renovating the other rooms and that we could choose another room. We looked at the rooms which were dark, musty, no AC as requested and there was a lot of construction noise and dust everywhere. We asked for a refund, Teresa refused and told us she would contact a hotel near her to take us in (but not for free). She said she would talk to her British husband to discuss our request for partial if not full refund. She called back to say but she would not accommodate us at all. She claimed that she will lose money reserving the room for us and letting others know that it was already booked. I strongly doubt that we had anything to do with their money issues, given that none of the other rooms were currently occupied nor any rooms were booked since November 2007 (take a look at their guest registry).

On our own accord, we found Microtel Diniwid Beach Hotel nearby. It was like night and day. Microtel is clean, air-conditioned, have excellent service, very nice employees and provide on-site dining. After five days of bliss at Microtel, we stopped by Diniwid Beach Resort to ask Teresa Enano again to reconsider some sort of compensation. She flatly denied us. We acknowledged her greed, thievery and misrepresentation.

Beware to all travelers if you don’t want to be robbed:
1. Never do business with bank transactions, only use a credit card. If you are not satisfied with any purchase and the seller refuses to give a refund, you can file a dispute with the credit card company.
2. Beware of any hotel that has a cancellation policy like Diniwid Beach Resort’s cancellation policy: cancellation fee before 15 days 25%, 7 days 50%, less than 7 days no refund.

OK. OK. That Austrian may have found the place pleasing. I find it appalling. Here's why:

1. It's name is Diniwid Beach Resort. It is located in Diniwid Beach. Fine, but nowhere are they in front of the beach. They are behind Artista Resort, shielded from the beach view by Artista's firewall. From the resort, you have to pass a narrow dirt alley between Artista and Microtel in order to get to the beach.
2. OK, I'll be fair. Some of their cottages have a view of the beach, but it is a far-away view. And in order to view it, you have to climb a steep flight of steps hewn along the mountainside to get to your cottage, and thus view the beach from a distance. Hey, I went to Boracay not to climb steep mountainsides to view the beach! And I don't want to view the beach from a distant cottage, but from a cottage fronting the beach!
3. Talk about learning the painful way, and I say it because it sure was a pain in the pocket. If you booked your reservation thru the internet, mesmerized by those pictures showing an idyllic place with palm trees, rustic cottages and a dazzling white beach, and when you arrive expecting a paradise and realize the truth on points 1 and 2 above, and decide you don't want to stay, can you get your money back? No way! Boracay resorts have a no refund policy - which I think is very unfair to the customer. To the tourist who wants to stay here. Be prepared to be robbed.
4. You still don't believe what I wrote? Check the webpages of Microtel and Artista. These two resorts are beachfront resorts. Step out of the resorts and you step right into the beach. Diniwid Beach resort is BEHIND these two resorts. To access the beach, you have to climb down the steep steps made of stone (do they offer insurance if you slip and fall?) and pass thru a narrow alley. If that's you're idea of a Boracay vacation, then go ahead. At least you've been fairly warned.