Not too crowded -- at least when we were there, even though they had plenty of guests. Our beachfront cottage was very good: the air conditioned room is good for 4, two queen size beds, comes with a small fridge (the bigger rooms have a bigger fridge and a water dispenser). They provide towels and they have their own shower gel/hand washing soap and shampoo. The veranda, with wooden seats and a rocking chair, was very relaxing. It was not noisy at all, contrary to my fears -- the resort is located adjacent to several other resorts; one of them used a sound system on the day we left (I think one of the local officials who won during the election treated his supporters/family ugh!). There is a washing up sink at our veranda, which was a good idea. They provide drying racks for clothes so you won't have to put your wet clothing on the wooden balustrade -- again, a good idea. Pet friendly (we had three dogs with us). Place looks secure -- but always lock your door when leaving your room and carry your keycard with you.
Buffet food, which comes with the room rate, was OK; I wouldn't say it was outstanding, but good enough to fill our tummies: breakfast (rice and some mains like adobo; they cook eggs to order), afternoon snack and dinner. No lunch. You can order a la carte if you don't fancy the food. My sister liked their kapeng barako.
They have a swimming pool -- but it was nothing extraordinary. Surprisingly, many guests stuck to the pool instead of the beach. The beach itself was mostly clean -- there was some littler (plastic wrapper mostly) but I think most beaches have the same fate nowadays. The sand was grainy/pebbly but that was fine with me. The water was mostly calm in the mornings but would have large waves by the afternoon. The beach is not exclusive to Sabangan guests but most guests of other adjacent resorts stick to the frontage of their resorts. You can go on a banana boat ride and jet ski for a fee.
Staff (from the guard to the front desk to the food servers and room attendants) were all very pleasant and attentive. They appear to be very well trained when it comes to customer service. Very nice. We booked a one-hour in-room massage for only 400 pesos (1 pax); really good -- you arrange the massage through the front desk.
The resort can improve on the following:
1) WiFi -- very patchy and weak; yes, we went to the beach to relax but we also need to keep in touch online. If you are thinking of going here and doing some work using the internet, this is not the place for you. This was one of the major disappointment for us. To be fair though, we don't know about the WiFi situation in the adjacent resorts.
2) Install an outdoor shower near the beach so guests can wash off the sand instead of bringing them into the rooms. Our room had a faucet outside, so we were fortunate to be able to wash at least our slippers and feet before entering the cottage.
3) Reservations are done via email. They do have a phone number in their Manila reservations office but they don't always answer the phone. The reservations office is also limited to regular working hours and days, so if you have a last-minute urgent request or query, no one will be there to reply to you concerns.
4) It is not quite clear what their cancellation policy is; it would be ideal if they could state this on their website (unless it is already there but we just did not see it). However, we found it easy to rebook our reservation -- without any fee (we appreciate that).
I might go back to Sabangan Beach Resort if I don't have to use the internet.