You don’t always find gold when you look for treasure . . .
We just came from a weekend getaway at Treasures of Bolinao in, well, Bolinao, Pangasinan. My friend blogged about this site so I thought why not give it a try. We were supposed to stay until today but opted to check out early because we were completely unsatisfied with this place.
Anyway, to be fair, let’s start with the few positives:
1.) The location is nice. The view is good. Sunset was definitely breathtaking. However, the beachfront of Treasures of Bolinao is not really a beach but rock formations. Good for sightseeing perhaps, but not for swimming. The picture shows here the nearby Patar Beach, which is a public beach area.
No need to check in at Treasures of Bolinao to enjoy the Patar Beach
2.) The staff at Treasures of Bolinao is friendly and nice.
Now, for the rest. Let me just outline some key things:
1.) After we have checked in, it looked like the room was poorly prepared. Never mind that our name was taped nicely by the doorway. There were no tissue/shampoo/soap in the bathroom, no towels, heck not even any pillow casing for the bed. And the room was pretty spartan. This would be fine if the rate was Php2,000 or so, but they called this room The Maharlika Suite, which was about Php7,000 to Php8,000/night.
2.) The bathroom lock was not working. They had to get someone to try and fix it while we were already checked in.
3.) The food takes forever to serve. At least 1 hour. Our mom was very frustrated when she ordered way ahead for dinner (like around 4pm pa lang) and still dinner get so delayed. So she ordered while in the pool and then went and showered, got dressed, rested a bit, hoping that when we got to the resto food would be ready. But lo and behold, we still had to wait for more than 1 hour. Same thing with breakfast. They asked us to inform the resto staff way ahead, but breakfast was served pretty late. And the food they offer is not even that great (over priced and under quality).
4.) Around 10pm or so, we heard loud bangings coming from the floor above. Like there was some ongoing repair and maintenance. At this ungodly hour. At first we let it pass, thinking it might be just a short while. But it went on and on for a couple of minutes, and not just with hammering but also with what sounded like furnitures being dragged across the floor. Wifey couldn’t take it anymore and asked me to check out what’s happening so I stormed the floor above. They were fixing a room, moving the beds, hammering the bed together etc. and the sound was being echoed completely along the hallway and to our room below. And again, this started at 10:00 in the evening.
5.) Unreliable running water. There’s a pail inside the Maharlika Suite. Guess what it’s for?
Again, at a price of Php2,000-3,000 maybe, we would let this pass. But we were paying for Php7,000++/night (+10% service charge), would you blame us if we expected a lot lot more? Goodness, if we shelled out an additional Php1-2,000, we could already have gotten a 2 bedroom suite at The Manor in Camp John Hay, Baguio or a villa in Sitio Remedios in Ilocos or a room in Nami Hotel in Boracay - where you get super pampered and with super excellent food to boot. Anyway, we thought it wasn’t worth our while to stay in this resort for another day, so opted to leave earlier than planned.
We weren’t the only group apparently. I think 2 or 3 more families were checking out early as well. Everyone as unsatisfied as we were. We know because we were able to talk to a family during breakfast and a lady was checking out (enumerating their group’s complaints) just as we were leaving the front desk.
Upon check out, they asked us to pay 30% of our bill for the second night. They tried to weasel in 10% service charge more for our penalty but Wifey was quick enough to point out that it should just be the room rate. Dapat nga daw full price pa since we reserved for 2 nights and “we are running a business here.” they said. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind paying in full if the place was really nice, but we were leaving early because we felt they didn’t hold their end of the bargain of this business deal.
Anyway, I wanted to leave that place immediately so we just paid up the 30% of their published room rate just to go. We just enjoyed the fact that, after our experience in Treasures of Bolinao, we were able to hear Sunday mass at the Our Lady of Manaoag (where we got our newly-acquired car blessed) and had a great meal at Isdaan Restaurant in Gerona, Tarlac.
So if you want to see the beaches of Bolinao, allow me to list down some of my alternative suggestions:
1.) Check out the other cheaper resorts in the area. I know we should have at least checked out the nearby resorts but we were just so pissed off with Treasures we really didn’t want to stay in the Bolinao area much longer.
2.) Treasures claims its the only resort in Patar Beach. True, but they don’t say that you still have to walk around 1km to get to the nice area of Patar Beach (harap nila puro bato, great if you want to go snorkeling and see the fishes, but if you want a long stretch of beach, you really have to walk far…)
Walking along Patar Beach to go back to Treasures of Bolinao, which is almost a speck on the horizon
3.) And walk across public beaches. So might as well check in to one of the resorts and drive to this public beach. Bring your cooler, umbrella, and head on to the most desolate part away from the videokes.
