Finding Accommodation in the Philippines (Part 1)

First of all, I'd like to apologize for the lack of updates recently, I've been a little busy and recently took a month long vacation to the UK.

I thought I'd start off my return with a little bit of information about accommodation in the Philippines, this is the first part which covers hotels, in the next part I'll go onto more specific information about those who want to rent vacation apartments.

When we think about a vacation, one thing we don't want to worry about is the state of the hotel. Most people just want to have a nice comfortable and high quality hotel, somewhere to relax and keep your personal belongings while you're out enjoying the place.

The next most important thing (or the first for some people) is the price of the hotel, nobody likes to get ripped off (especially me) but there is the old saying that you get what you pay for, which usually is case unfortunately.

Of course I can't leave out the important aspect of the location too, who wants to have a really great 5 star hotel out in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do? Well, I'd think the majority would say they wouldn't, besides the fact that no company is going to waste money building at such a location, but moving on..

So we have the 3 factors, so how does this help you find out where you're going to stay? Lets look at 3 locations and 3 different hotels from those locations, I’ll cover just Makati today, next Cebu and then Boracay:

1. Makati

Who would stay here?

Being a business district, a lot of investors and general business travellers would choose this as a prefered location, but its great for tourists too, its a central location and with a large amount to do! Makati has a large selection of malls, restaurants, bars and with all of that available hotels too.

Find out more about Makati

OK, lets look at a few of the hotels in Makati:

Upmarket

Photo by Jekert Gwapo

Shangri-la Makati, just has to be mentioned here, one of the nicest upmarket hotels in Makati with room rates of around 10,000 peso.

I’ve stayed here myself in the past and would have to say the quality of the rooms, lobby and staff service is great! It’s such a comfortable and relaxing place to welcome you into the Philippines, although for the price tag of course you shouldn’t expect less. This is perfect for those who have a little more cash to splash out for their stay and don’t mind paying the extra for the experience, or a long term stays though perhaps a cheaper hotel would be a better way to spend your money.

Budget

Into the budget hotel categories falls the Saint Illians Inn, which I’ve heard great things about, with all that you need for your stay Saint Illians is reasonably priced starting at 1,770 pesos per night, find out more at http://www.saintilliansinn.com/.

Reasonable

Photo by Hotels.com

At a reasonable price the Renaissance (new world hotel) Makati, can’t be argued with at around 7000 peso per night and like many world class hotels, the service is great. The room décor is not quite up to the standards of the Shangri-la, however it’s not bad and has everything you need!

Run down of prices

Price Range	Hotel	Price (Peso)	Price (U.S. Dollar)	Price (GBP)
Upmarket	Shangri-la	PHP12,000	~$279	~£175
Budget	Saint Illians Inn	PHP1,970.00	~$46.00	~£29.00
Reasonable	Renaissance (New world)	PHP 5,500	~$127.50	~£80.50

*These prices and conversion rates are at time of writing, quoted from the hotels website for stay of 1 night for 2 persons,

~ approximately (room was not quoted in this currency)

If you wish to recommend other hotels or have any comments about the hotels in this post, please contact me!