This hotel was recommended by a reputable travel agent in Singapore as 4-star rating. It takes about 45 minutes to get there (mostly due to bad traffic on most days) from the airport. The hotel is pretty run-down from the outside, but it gets worse when you get into the room.
FIrstly, driveway is very small, only can fit 1 mini van and there won't be much space to walk around it. Upon stepping into the hotel lobby, it's quite gloomy looking and has a stale smell (like a combination of old wood furniture mixed with stale aroma from the cafe).
There is no tour desk at this hotel and the front desk do not have any brochures or information for tourists. We were given some "quotes" from the staff when we asked about some day tours that we could do.
In the room, the furniture looked really old, carpet was badly stained, bedsheets torn, curtains stained and torn, bathroom tiles cracked and worst of all, the shower head was all rusty and had some weird thing sticking out of the holes !! Towels did not look clean, but rather old and yellowish. The only basic toiletry provided is a bar of soap for washing hands and toilet paper.
The supposedly popular chef's recommendation in the menu was the clubhouse sandwich, that tasted really bad. The "ham" in the sandwich was very dark red with white patches on it. The freshest looking thing on the plate was the fries and chili sauce.
I was charged PHP250 to send an overseas fax and i was not given any receipt for that. They apparently don't issue receipts on such things.
The concierge (actually just a guy standing by the door, no booth at all) seem to only open doors and help when he feels like it.
On a slightly brighter note, the location is not that bad, but expect to travel far to see a beach. It's 2 minutes walk to a very busy street with lots of fastfood outlets and a shopping center for getting basic things.
If you intend to go Cebu for a worry free holiday resort style, don't choose this hotel. It's nowhere near the beach or sea and the amounts you pay to get to the beaches is not worth it at the end.
- Holiday Plaza Cebu City
