I booked two rooms for our trip - one King Suite and one Standard Deluxe. While I was not expecting both rooms to be at par with each other, the differences are not enjoyable and the lack of facilities for the Standard Deluxe room was bad.

To start, I asked to check in early, which was a request and I understand that it cannot be granted all the time. So when we came at 1:30 and the room was not ready, I understood. They did inform us that the Standard room is ready so we checked in and was told that they would call us when our room would be ready at 2 pm. When we arrived at the room, it was scorching hot. It was not ready. The aircon was not working. We gave them another chance and tried to call but alas, the phone was not working either. What a great way to start.

I went down to the front desk to tell them the situation and asked if we can be transferred since the room was too small. They offered the Apartelle, which was too pricey, especially given what I have seen. Another option that they offered was a rollaway bed at an additional cost and that they will send someone to fix the aircon. I agreed to this, hoping that this is just a minor mishap. We did have an event on the hotel so it was convenient for us to stay here, despite all the bad things I have been hearing about the hotel facilities.

So at 2 pm, I came down to get my keycard, which was discussed with the frontdesk that I will only need to ask for my keycard and not go through the check in process again. Unfortunately, this was not the case. I was asked to fill out the form again, asked for an ID again, and the keycard was not yet ready. Bad start, again. I did not fillout the form. I told the frontdesk that I already did the whole check in process and I only need to get the keycard for the King Suite. Since it was not ready, we had to wait, again.

When we finally got our keycard and moved to our room, it was on the other side of the building, which is fine since it gives us privacy. The aircon was not yet open, so the room was also hot. But this is fine, since it only took 30 minutes for the room to be at room temperature. Mind you, this is in April, when Philippine temperatures could reach extreme levels.

By 10 pm, when our event was over, I asked my family members if their room is already cold, to which they replied that it was not. So I asked that they be transferred and I was ready to be angry since I know that they could only offer an Apartelle room (as was stated by the front desk personnel earlier that day). But, they were offered another Standard deluxe room which was apparently available. So the front desk personnel lied to me, just to make a quick buck and get us to book the higher room rate.

The checkout process was also not reliable. You would have to wait at the front desk for quite a while and they will not tell you when the room is cleared, you have to ask them every now and then. Here, I asked my family if their new room was better. They said that it was indeed colder but there was no water supply and they had to wash themselves in another family member's room or when water became available, they used the bidet since the pressure was not reaching the showers. This was bad given that they had a baby with them and there was LITTLE TO NO WATER on the room.

At this point, I already gave up on this hotel. I can forgive the lack of good customer service at the front desk because the housekeeping staff was very kind and attentive. I can forgive the misgivings and inconveniences but I cannot forgive the subpar facilities and the lack of water in our room.

If you are going to SBMA, try out the other hotels or book their higher end rooms such as the King Suite, Apartelle, or Double Deluxe located on the other building. Their Standard Deluxe rooms are cheap but it comes at a price.