Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Friendly staff and very cheap . |
| Disadvantages: |
Unsafe location, unclean and bad water supply |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
no |
The best laid plans… The second hotel in our month long adventure in the Philippines, things were not quite as we had expected. In an effort to save some money, I was prepared to lower my standards, I trawled the Internet, a habit I have, and came up with the Villa Carolina Townhouse. The Website indicated that it was ‘family’ hotel with a variety of rooms to suit all tastes. As our plans included me providing accommodation for my parent-in-laws, at least one brother-in-law and two nephews, this looked like a good deal.
~~~ Where is it? ~~~
Located off the extremely busy Roxas Boulevard in Paranaque (paren-ya-key), southwest
Manila. This is a family run ‘hotel’ owned by a US/Philippine couple. Each of the 25 rooms is different and unique, rooms are allocated on a first come first served basis, MOST of the guests stay for only 1 night.
~~~ Arrival ~~~
On arrival we were warmly greeted by the staff, however, despite having booked sometime in advance, 3 months, they were unaware of our impending arrival. We were shown two
rooms and we tried the brighter lit of the two. Although the room was moderately clean, it was small and the shower / washing facilities were basic. A notice on the door read ‘In the land of fun and sun, we don’t flush for #1’.
After talking to reception we were moved to a ground floor slightly better, larger room with the same notice on the bathroom door. One look at my wife’s face convinced me that we had made a mistake. I went down to reception, borrowed a phone book and called my usual hotel, Gilarmi, where I was able to secure accommodation for a month from the following day, so we only had to stay one night.
~~~ The Room ~~~
The Room was badly lit and decorated in a uniform cyan with good, if worn, furniture: Double bed, bedside table and lamp, which did not work, wooden ‘coffee’ table, two seater sofa, large wooden side table with a badly tuned 20” colour TV precariously perched upon it. A noisy, ancient air conditioning unit kept the room at an acceptable temperature. The bedding was almost nonexistent, two thin but hard pillows, an adequate old matriss cover and a thin almost transparent top cover. We were promised towels & soap as part of our accommodation; the soap was there, however there were no towels. My wife went and complained, returning with two towels that turned out to be frayed with large holes and were no better that floor mops.
~~~ Locality ~~~
As we could not spend all of our brief stay in our room, we decided to wander over to the local mall about 5 minutes walk and across Roxas Bulavard. On our way out, we looked in at the kitchen, all I will say is that it needed a good clean, starting with a flamethrower. We decided there and then to eat out.
As I have said before Roxas Bulavard is a very busy road, being the main coastal route from Manila to Cavite. Pathways (sidewalks) were in a very bad state of repair. Major road works were happening despite the local government putting a ban on them. With no official crossing point we were forced to dodge through traffic to get to the Coastal Mall. The Coastal Mall was very disappointing, unfinished with only one floor occupied. Most of the stores were of the independent trader sort; I expected to see Delboy and Rodney Trotter wandering around. The only saving grace was the Jolly bee fast-food restaurant where we ate, slowly to avoid returning to the Townhouse too soon.
~~~ That Night ~~~
Back at the Townhouse we settled down for the night. We slept badly, mainly due to the noise from Roxas and the local disco, which also provided a flashing light show through the thin curtains. On the whole this was not conducive for restful sleep. The breakfasted on snacks and mineral water we had purchased the day before to avoid eating in the dining area. This was a single eight-seater dining table in the dark and dingy reception/bar area.
~~~ We are Leaving ~~~
As soon as were could we checked out, the girl on reception kindly booked us a taxi that arrived within a couple on minutes. It was with a great sense of relief that we left the Villa Carolina Townhouse behind us as we returned to Makati.
~~~ Conclusion ~~~
In our opinion, my wife and I, this hotel is totally unsuitable for young children. I think that the clientele would be young, singles or couples travelling on a tight budget with fairly flexible, low, set of standards. I have written to the owners expressing this opinion and suggesting they amend their website accordingly. I received a reply to this email. The owners thanked us for informing then as to the conditions, apologised for the towels, the staff, who were all new and untrained. The water problems were blamed on the recently constructed BAYVIEW TOWERS and the endemic corruption of local water company officials. We were also offered a 20% discount, FREE airport transfer and a cold beer should we decide to use them again. I THINK NOT!
The small redeeming feature of this establishment was the staff, which were warm, polite and helpful. I got the feeling that we were not the first in this situation and will probably not be the last.
~~~ Costs ~~~
I based my holiday on an exchange rate of 70Php to the Pound (GBP), I was getting between 71 and 72 Php to1GBP from money changers, however when I used my credit card exchange rate was better, 73.5 to 74.1 Php to 1GBP.
We paid 950Php for our room; this is the top
price you would pay per night. –
- Dormitory Bed spaces - two bunk beds, 4 beds in each room, fan, common bath, free safekeeping of valuables: 180PHP
- Budget Rooms with fan, common bath, single or double occupancy without window: 300Php, with window: 350 to 500Php
- Standard Room with fan, private bath: 550Php
- Standard Room with fan, private bath, and Cable TV: 700Php
- Deluxe Room with private bath, Cable TV and Air-Conditioning: 950Php
- Above Room Rates for 2 persons, add 150Php per extra person
Kids, 8 years old and under FREE.
Weekly and monthly discount are available for those paying in advanced.
Contact:
THE TOWNHOUSE HOTEL MANILA
VILLA CAROLINA TOWNHOUSE
201 ROXAS BLVD. UNIT 31
TAMBO, PARANAQUE,
METRO-MANILA,
PHILIPPINES TEL. (632)-833-1939, 833-3923, 854-1435, 854-1436
FAX. (632)-804-0161
WEB: http://pages.zdnet.com/AsiaBill/travelphilippines/index.html
