Stayed here for five nights with my colleagues last month. The location was excellent, close to ADMU and a variety of shops, malls, and restaurants. The staff was polite, they always greeted you with a smile and tried their best to be helpful. The rooms were nice, clean, and stylish. The only downside is that there seemed to be some kind of communication gap between staff. For example, when I asked what time breakfast will be served, the reception said "before 10am" and "we'll slip a message under your door." Hmmm. They then called our rooms the next morning at 7AM, jolting us in our sleep, asked us what we wanted to eat, and delivered b'fast in our rooms. My colleagues, who cannot understand English, were definitely unhappy, as would anyone, if they were roused from their sleep and talked to in a foreign language. They finally decided to let us have our breakfasts in the restaurant on the third day, after many questions.

As my colleagues are not fluent in English, I asked what kinds of b'fast they served. They rattled off names which were unfamiliar to foreign guests (tapsilog means nothing if you're not Filipino), so they just defaulted to continental b'fasts (which are familiar), and cereals. It would have been nice if the hotel actually wrote down and printed a menu (with pictures please), where guests can choose and perhaps even be encouraged to try local food.

The internet was also spotty, and would not work in our rooms sometimes. My colleague just gave up and simply used the internet in the lobby for the rest of our stay. It would be helpful if the hotel printed instructions on how to connect to wifi (lobby and rooms). This is especially useful for older guests, and guests who are not very tech-savvy. The mini bar in my room wasn't working as well. I didn't have time to tell the staff because I was too busy, and I didn't really use it, though it would help their future guests if they checked it.

As a hotel, I hope that the management will remember that they will tend to have foreign guests, or the elderly as guests sometimes, and that that printed instructions and menus could go a long way. I had the impression that we came unannounced (with the mix-up in breakfasts and whatnot), and that the staff wasn't ready to receive guests. Just a few tweaks here and there, a few small details, and our hotel stay would've been better.

Stayed here with my colleagues for a couple of nights as it was located close to Ateneo de Manila University. To my dismay, I found tiny roaches on the sink and toilet as soon as I entered the room. I immediately called the front desk and they sent housekeeping to remove the roaches. The next morning, I saw some roaches again and reported it to the front desk. When I got back that evening, a note said that they sprayed insecticide in the room. True enough, there were dead roaches all over. So I called up housekeeping to remove them. However, just about 15 minutes later, I saw roaches creeping on the walls and floor again, including the bedroom. It was just terrible!!!

My colleagues did not have roaches in their rooms, so I suspect that the room assigned to me was close to the garbage chute. It's interesting to note that the front desk and housekeeping staff did not feign surprise at all at my complaints. It seemed that the roaches was a usual problem for them.

Minus the insect problem, the hotel would have been acceptable. The room was clearly dated and needed upkeep and upgrading, but the staff were extremely helpful and polite. Breakfast buffet offered some choices for Continental and Filipino breakfast items. The hotel was surrounded by restaurants and fast food joints.