Paolyn Houseboats Coron Island
Laknisan Lagoon, Banuang Daan, Coron, Busuanga Island 5316 Philippines
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Travelers' Choice
These new Houseboats (we also have a private italo filipino houseboat restaurant) are the first in their kind in Philippines and they are located in pristine lagoons in the limestone island of Coron: Ancestral Domain of the Tagbanua Tribe, National Park, Marine Reserve and Unesco site (Coron Island is different from Coron town that is located in another island named Busuanga). You can choose one entire private houseboat for yourself with big indoor and outdoor private areas (the Glass Houseboat, the favorite from couple in honey moon and small families, or the Paolyn Houseboat Original and the Superglass Houseboat that can host 15/16 guests) or you can choose just one room (for one couple or a small family). Each room has now its own private internal bathroom with shower, private dining area, private outdoor relaxing area (with private sun-beds and sun-umbrella) with private ladder to enter the sea. We will pick you up at the Coron/Busuanga airport (or in Coron Town) and bring you to our Houseboats (from the airport 30 minutes Van plus 15 minutes speedboat). Transfers are complimentary. No pollution, no traffic, no noise. Amazing scenery with breathless landscape with steep cliffs and Karst rock formations made of Permian Limestone of Jurassic origin, it offers superb snorkeling and it is totally quite except birds chirping and splashes of fish. Clean and clear water. It is the only place where to sleep and eat in all Coron Island. Free use of Kayaks, Standup Paddleboards and snorkeling gears. Unlimited drinking water and free WIFI. Totally Eco compatible, they do not discharge any waste in the sea and they are totally off the grid with 24h electricity and fresh water. Each room has multiple tower fans and some rooms have also the air conditioning (optional with a surcharge). We have 202 employees with 16 rooms and most of them are members of the Tagbanua Tribe that did not study and never worked before. This crazy project is almost the only income the tribe families of Coron Island have at the moment!
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Property amenities
Free High Speed Internet (WiFi)
Bar / lounge
Beach
Canoeing
Babysitting
Children Activities (Kid / Family Friendly)
Pets Allowed ( Dog / Pet Friendly )
Free airport transportation
Wifi
Restaurant
Breakfast available
Wine / champagne
Diving
Snorkeling
Airport transportation
Shuttle bus service
Foot massage
Hand massage
Head massage
Manicure
Massage
Neck massage
Pedicure
Concierge
Currency exchange
Mosquito net
Sun deck
Sun loungers / beach chairs
Sun umbrellas
First aid kit
24-hour check-in
24-hour front desk
Laundry service
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Room features
Air conditioning
Dining area
Housekeeping
Private balcony
Room service
Safe
Bidet
Bath / shower
Seating area
Bottled water
Private bathrooms
Wake-up service / alarm clock
Complimentary toiletries
Hair dryer
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Room types
Mountain view
Ocean view
Non-smoking rooms
Suites
Family rooms
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Languages Spoken
English, Filipino
Location
Laknisan Lagoon, Banuang Daan, Coron, Busuanga Island 5316 Philippines
Getting there
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+1
I am a travel photographer and vlogger who travels internationally once a month. Paolyn Houseboats far exceeded my expectations! If google allowed me to give a higher rating I would. From the stunning views of the crystal-clear waters to the excellent service provided by the friendly staff, every moment spent on the houseboat was sheer perfection. My girlfriend is a foodie and her favorite dish was the garlic shrimp or shrimp pasta. That coupled with a dessert (my favorite is the brownie) and a couple glasses of wine sent us into sheer heaven. My favorite meal was the pasta. I had it 3 times while I was there! The menu was plentiful but i couldn't stop eating it! We had an amazing time lounging on the deck of our room, we snorkeled in the most beautiful coral reefs just…
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Date of stay: August 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Helpful
The facility is quite nice and the staff makes every effort. Nevertheless, we think that the overall experience was far too expensive (and we say that as Swiss people who are more than used to such prices). And yes, the owner will now comment on how much staff he has hired and what high transport costs for food etc. pp he has. Nevertheless, we are of the opinion that one could have much nicer experiences for this money. And here are a few constructively critical comments: The pre-preparation of the menus means that they cannot be prepared fresh, but some time before you eat them. An authentic carbonara should not have dried pasta that can no longer be rolled with a fork and therefore has to be crushed with a knife (where has the Italianità gone). The taste was good, but the…
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Date of stay: July 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Helpful
Response from April Lyn Cervantes, Owner at Paolyn Houseboats Coron Island
Responded Aug 10, 2023
An attentive reader will read some of the 1,000 reviews on Paolyn Houseboats, and compare with the opinion of this Swiss guy (G oogle, trip a dvisor, airb n b, booking dot com). An attentive reader will also have a look to his over 200 reviews that he posted on G ogle and on Tr ip A dvisor on OTHER hotels and restaurants…… how many times he used the words “Arrogant”, “Disastrous service”, “Overpriced”, “Overrated”, “Value for money not correct” ……. This person posted his review also as G oogle review probably to be sure to make as much damage as possible to our project. In the G oogle review he at least gave 5 stars to the location, 4 stars to the rooms. He writes here that the “facility is quite nice”. Luckily most of our guests are socially responsible and they really appreciated the efforts and the experience for the money they spent, how it can be read in the around 1,000 reviews (trip a dvisor, airb n b, booking dot com). It would be easier and a lot cheaper to employe experienced workers not from the tribe (paying them the normal salary that all hotels pay instead of paying a lot more), we could run this place with less than half of the employees and saving around 70% of the costs and so making tourists pay less for their vacation in this small paradise. BUT PAOLYN HOUSEBOATS IS TRYING TO GIVE TO THE TRIBE MEMBERS A GOOD SALARY AND A FUTURE IN A COUNTRY WHERE THE POVERTY IS EVERYWHERE. About the customer orientation, we need to apologize since our manager was 10 days in the hospital and our customers relation guy stayed at home for 15 days for family problems (but we still had 200 employees for 16 rooms!), that is why probably nobody went to him to personally ask if everything was ok as we normally do. That is most probably also why many other guests wrote in their reviews instead that they felt treated as royalties. But this person never complained about the food or service with the food and beverage responsible and never asked to talk to someone. If we knew there was a problem, we would have immediately done our best to solve it like for example to cook another carbonara in a medium way and we would have gone personally to apologize. On the G oogle review he made an edit and he says the owners are LIARS!! we do not have other choice that to show how (mentally) poor this person is. Probably Switzerland is already a too big country for him. He wrote that “it is lie about the presence of the owner/founder in the facility” and that “would be provable without any problems”. DO IT PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even in the court if he wants. Paolo and April Lyn (the owners and the founders) are 5 years full time dedicated to this project and to the community of the Tagbanua Tribe of Coron Island. Even during the pandemic (2 years in Philippines) they kept paying all the employees with no guests (most of businesses here sent home the employees without salary that starved and died because no food and no medicines). Paolyn instead even took care of the 2,500 people of the two tribe villages with monthly rice donations and paying the medicines and H bills of all of them that needed. Paolyn has over 200 employees (the list is on the website). Most from the Tagbanua Tribe for 16 rooms (they never worked before and did not study, Paolo and April Lyn are working 20h a day in the facility to train them). Their salary is almost three times higher of the normal salary that hotels pay to skilled employees here. There is even a permanent "office" with computer in the corner of the platform of the Restaurant where one of the two owners is there since 4,30 am / 5 am in the morning each day. Many guests on departure go there to thank personally for the nice stay and to thank for the effort that this project requires from all points of view. Intelligent people that understand how difficult (and expensive) houseboats totally off the grid are, in a national park, marine reserve, Unesco site and ancestral domain where there are NO services. NO electricity, NO fresh water, NO discharge systems (we do not discharge anything in the sea). With not skilled employees. The few times Paolo and April are not in the facility they are in the tribe villages to make donations to 2,500 people. We hope that this nice guy did at least 1% percent in his life of what Paolyn Houseboats and its founders did for the local community. Luckily most of our guests are socially responsible and really appreciated the efforts and the experience for the money they spent, how it can be read in the around 1,000 reviews. He feels probably jealous regarding the video that he mentioned, many guests asked how this crazy project started, that is why now in a hidden corner of the restaurant there is a 5 minutes video made and paid by the Government of the Philippines (not from us) to promote the PRA SRRV life time VISA that Paolo has for 10 years (it is on line, it can be found googling “PRA VISA Paolo Grazzini”, so an attentive reader can judge it). He even lied about the starters. He wrote “starter is served with the main course on three evenings in a row, even though you clearly informed the guests every evening that you wanted the starter first and then the main course, this simply has to do with ignoring the guests' wishes”. This person (they were 4) stayed two nights and they had ONLY TWO dinners in our restaurant. First dinner on 22nd July they had 4 main dishes (1 pasta bolognese, 1 fish in coconut, 1 pasta with prawns, 1 butter tomatoes fried chicken) and two starters (1 Calamari and 1 Ceviche). On the second and last dinner on 23rd July they had 4 main dishes (1 Carbonara, 2 tempura prawns, 1 chicken curry) and two side dishes (French Fries and Salade). NO APPETIZERS!! The had only one lunch (sandwich during a diving trip) and two breakfast with FREE room service. We need to apologize if our pasta Al Dente is crunchy (as written also in the menu). We apologize if it was too crunchy for him and he did not like it. Al dente means to use the tooth to cut it. May be it is time to stop offering the real pasta Al Dente to tourists. We could have made a new one if he said something. But he did not. In the same time we are glad he wrote the taste of Carbonara was good. After we had read the first review on Google we asked for details to the Food And Beverage responsible and he told us that they had always eaten in your private dining area in his room. But he edited his G oogle review saying we are LIARS since he always ate at the restaurant. We apologize if our person gave us a wrong information about where he ate, we do not need to lie and it is true in general what we wrote , that it can take little time to FREE deliver the food in the rooms (we employee 10 extra boys to paddle and 10 extra waitresses for it. Well different comparing to press one button in the elevator!) so it might not be as warm as if served in our restaurant (and in this case the appetizers could be served not at the same time of the main dish). But he lied about the starters……. As explained he had two dinners and not three in our restaurants and he ordered 2 starters in 4 people only in the first dinner, never again, so it is not true that for three times he asked to serve the starters and our staff ignored him. He wrote: “this simply has to do with ignoring the guests' wishes”. Instead, our staff allowed him even to order a dish that was not in the menu anymore (butter tomatoes fried chicken), this shows how much we care of our guests. Most or our guests appreciated that this project does not make pollution, that despite the location, has the best internet of the whole country thank to the 8 new Starlink internet satellites and 2 fibers bounced from town with special 5km P2P 5 km antennas and that even if no services in Coron Island, the houseboats have hot water showers, toilets, 24h a day electricity, option for AC and free facilities as kayaks, masks, fins and SUPs. He wrote prices of the food are high. There are few restaurants in Coron Town (Poco Deli, Two Season Bayside, Pacifico, Altrove, Get Real) and our prices are cheaper of their prices (our prices include already taxes and service fees). Our prices can be seen in our menu a la carte that has been always on our website. Our restaurant is located in a private lagoon separate from the lagoon where the rooms are (that we rent from the beautiful Tagbanua Tribe than owns the island and its water by the law since it is ancestral domain) and it is private for our guests staying overnight. We do not accept walk in guests since we do not want to spoil the place and to disturb our guests despite the fact we have now 8 chefs, 3 helpers, 5 dish washers and an higher operating costs due to the location. Even so, we keep prices reasonable and lower than restaurants in town since we do not want that guests have the feeling that we take advantage of them being the only restaurant in Coron Island, even considering that Coron island has not services, no electricity and no fresh water – so we make them ourselves - (the restaurants in town have them) and that the kitchen (but also toilets, showers, sinks) do NOT discharge in the sea but we collect the waste water in holding tanks inside the hulls and we have 4 boats special equipped that suck the waste from the houseboats and bring them to another island 2 hours far away where we have a 14 stages septic tank with an STP machine on a hill where we pump up. Restaurants in town just plug in the wall, open the tap and discharge in the municipal system.. Not everybody appreciates all this and the exclusivity to be eat in a private lagoon in a marine reserve, national park, Unesco Site and ancestral domain of the ancient tribe of Philippines for a cheaper price of eating in a normal restaurant in town. So many guests lately told us we should increase the prices of the food since very reasonable considering the location and the logistic (they asked us how we can cover the costs of the restaurant!). Guests can always eat in our private houseboat restaurant (and in this case the logistic would be so much easier!) but we also give the opportunity to our guests to choose to eat in their private dining area since this option give a further special experience: eating in a quite private dining area with a breathless limestone landscape in a calm and sheltered lagoon with pristine water with eagles flying and plenty of fish swimming (sometimes also sea turtles!). This is why we do not charge any service fee for the room service (all hotels charge a service fee for room service even if they just need to press one button in the elevator!), since we really want our guests have the options without having an extra cost in order to fully enjoy our place. Furthermore: Does this person know how much cost to build houseboats? Does this person know how much cost to build houseboats in a province in the Philippines? Does this person know how much cost to run totally off the grid houseboats in a remote and secluded place and make guests to have all comforts? Does this person know how much cost not to make any pollution in a place like this? Not everybody is able to appreciate all this and appreciate the fact we involve not skilled tribe members (paying them an higher salary) instead of just employee less skilled employees. Luckily most of people instead really appreciate all this. Paolyn will keep existing and helping the local community till nice people exist.
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
I booked to stay at the house boats on booking.com. I got a message at the time of booking asking me to contact the property directly via WhatsApp to pay a deposit or the booking would be cancelled. I did this straight away as we really wanted to stay and the property opened my message and ignored it. I sent many messages and was ignored. Eventually the replied a couple of days before my stay. I was told that they were no longer working with booking.com and that they received “hundreds” of messages per day and that’s why they could not reply. I don’t believe this for one second. I again asked to pay the deposit and after many messages back and forward they told me they could not honour my booking due to not working with booking.com. They basically eventually admitted they had…
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Date of stay: February 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Helpful
Response from April Lyn Cervantes, Owner at Paolyn Houseboats Coron Island
Responded Aug 3, 2023
True that we cancel the reservations of guests that do not pay. This person wrote "stay in Febrary" and made a review in July, 6 months after. Long time to make a review and we cannot not find the name in our archive. But it is true that it is long time we do not work with booking dot com anymore (well before last February) since many guests did not pay and complained once we cancelled them. Further before to stop working with boooking dot com we had so many "not shown" from guests that booked on booking dot com and did not pay and did no show. Nobody refunded us for that. Overbooking is when guest pay and has not the room. It is not this the case. We cannot keep the room locked without payment having 202 employees and 16 rooms. We are not Sheraton with 400 rooms of the same typology. Our rooms are almost all different and this project could not survive with more not shown from guests that did not pay. That is why we stopped working with booking dot com where in our case guests could reserve without paying at the moemnt of tghe booking since we did not have the credit card manual digiting facility (that allows to hotels to charge a credit card without having it on hands but having just the numbers of it).
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
My 3 friends and i rented the entire glass houseboat. (Both halves) The process to get there involved flying into USU- Busuanga Coron Airport. A courtesy van supplied by the resort picked us up at the airport along with several other guests for about a 30 min drive to the port on the other side of the island. Then onto a motor boat for a 30 min ride to the restaurant/check in desk. After that, we switched to 2 other smaller boats that took us and our luggage to the house boat It is an absolutely gorgeous setting. You can snorkel, swim, kayak, right off the houseboat. The bedroom has glass doors that open wide to the lagoon and the lounging deck. We never closed those for two reasons. The views and to keep air circulating. Each half had its own bathroom, 1 bed, safe,…
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Date of stay: May 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Helpful
+1
I am so glad we booked here. We are from NZ 2 Adults 3 Ch 11,14,17 and stayed in the Bamboo house 1 for 3 days. How magical and special is this place. Loved everything about it and not 1 regret. The Tours were so great to get Kayangan lake to ourselves for was a treat. The Coral islands were amazing and so vibrant. Wifi at the boat house was so good, fast even. Who would’ve thought it would’ve worked that far in isolation. What a huge operation it is to run such a successful busy accommodation. Kayaking a snorkeling 100m from the boat house was sooooo cool. We even saw turtles. Note- the staff are hard working, so friendly and helpful but speak little English so be patient and kind if your orders are not exactly what you ordered. They do an incredible job to get this place…
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Date of stay: April 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Helpful
+1
We were there on April 23, very kind staff, we received detailed explanations about the place and the activities, excellent facilities, the place is very special, you must experience the adventure, a wonderful place!!! We enjoyed every moment of our stay there, we loved it very much. Wonderful!!!
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Date of stay: April 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Helpful
Fantastic place to stay - we stayed for two nights and didn’t want to leave. The houseboats are in a cove with the clearest water we have seen, everyone working at Paolyn were great and the food was brilliant + reasonably priced. A must visit if you are travelling to coron.
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Date of stay: April 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Helpful
+1
By far the best experience we had in the Philippines. They were so helpful when our flight got cancelled last minute, booked our ferry tickets for us, picked us up at the airport, and brought all our meals to our houseboat. We felt like literal royalty, and they were so happy and friendly and helpful. Cannot say enough great things about this company. Plus they support the local tribe on the island, and are environmentally conscious. I would 1000% come back and recommend to my friends. For four friends traveling on a budget, the price was right, the food and drink prices were similar to the city. You need to book this now, trust us.
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Date of stay: April 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Helpful
Experiencing this place is a must. The experience of sleeping on Coron Island by the water--with the quietness it offers--is unforgettable. It lends its tenants peace and respite from city life. While it does not have the usual creature comforts of city / luxury life, it is part of the charm and experience. The houseboats are are accessible to twin lagoon via kayak. Kayangan and Barracuda are also nearby via their speedboats that can be rented at reasonable price. It offers astonishingly good Italian food (with considerations on the availability of ingredients). My boyfriend is Italian and a purist when it comes to food. He was impressed to enjoy pasta al nero di seppia and frutti di mare in the middle of a remote island in the Philippines.
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Date of stay: April 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Helpful
+1
This place is something you really only come across once in a life time, I haven’t seen anything as special and unique as these houseboats! I originally booked accommodation on the west of Busuanga island but quickly realised that we were quite far away from where we wanted to be in terms of the main highlights of Coron Island. I had noticed the house boats before but it wasn’t until I looked a little more closer that I realised that we simply HAD to stay at Paolyn Houseboats! I booked through booking.com (no longer part of booking.com) originally but once you book, you immediately exchange communication through Whatsapp with Paolo the owner and cutting a long story short it was better to book directly with Paolo rather than through a 3rd party (which by the way saves you…
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Date of stay: March 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
1 Helpful vote
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PRICE RANGE
$171 - $206 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
LOCATION
PhilippinesMimaropaPalawan ProvinceBusuanga IslandCoronCoron IslandBanuang Daan
NUMBER OF ROOMS
16
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