A Place To Remember El Nido

It's not a hotel, it's a bugger. We had to book this "hotel" because others in the city were reserved. It wasn't expected, but it surprised me. A windowless room, or rather a window overlooking a stuffy corridor. Towels don't soak up water, room like a dog's shed. No hot water. Breakfast sucks, it takes a long time to cook, sleepy, sloppy girl (apparently related to the owner) In the dining room and the owner's office and the dining area and toilet for their three dogs (dog urine on the floor), the smell is killer. Then breakfast in the city cafes. On the table (in the bird cage) lives the CAT. The staff hardly understand English, they gather a meeting of employees to understand anything they want. Never cleaned a room in 10 days. There's no one at the front desk, empty all the time, or girls sitting ducking into YouTube. The owners' dogs bark on the stairs at night, the owners do nothing. There he is, a complete Filipino Zen.

DO NOT STAY HERE!!! They have multiple small dogs that yap and howl throughout the day. We thought okay maybe once everyone is settled for the night they would be okay. Nope. They lock the dogs in their own room with the TV turned up loud and they continued to bark throughout the night. We even asked the front desk if they could help with the dogs at 3:30am when they would not shut up. The guy tried to call the owners with no luck and then said the owners of the hotel weren’t here. We knocked on the door to see if there was someone with the dogs that could help calm them down with no answer. So not sure who the dogs belong to be based on the other reviews it seems like they are not going anywhere. After a long night of not sleeping, housekeeping then started opening and slamming doors starting at 6:45am while all listening to music loud enough that it can easily be heard through the doors. I would take the dozens of roosters we have slept near in the Philippines over this.

This hotel has a great location on the beach in Downtown El Nido with friendly staff. The view from the top floor restaurant/bar is excellent, breakfast was good although I had reservations about the two dogs living in the kitchen, one barked frequently. We were on the 4th floor accessed by timber stairs – no elevator. The small room was made even smaller with the addition of a single bed next to the queen bed and a half sized, very noisy, dirty refrigerator in front of the mirror. The exhaust fan in the bathroom sounded like a helicopter. The real concern we had with this property was the lack of fire detection and fire alarms systems. The fire detection wiring was hanging out of the ceiling (perhaps ready for future connection), the emergency lighting was sitting on top of the refrigerator but not connected to anything and there was no fire alarm. The evacuation plan on the back of the door showed evacuation via a fire escape which did not exist. If there was a fire, escape would have been very difficult if not impossible. This hotel should not be operating as it does not comply with the current Philippine fire code. We were booked for 3 nights but unfortunately we arrived very late and did not have time to relocate. Feeling very unsafe at this property, we changed hotels the next day.