Swagman Hotel Manila

Hans-Georg Gloeckler (28.10.2017 11:08)
Good Hotel
Small room, but big enough for one Person

Gabe Estrella (17.10.2017 19:52)
This review is for the restaurant, lobby area, location, and "bus" service. I haven't stayed here overnight. First, they offer a buffet breakfast from 6-10 for 284 PHP. Not a bad price. Most of the food offered in the buffet is Filipino breakfast. For the price, the breakfast is good...except the coffee. Its given black with some fresh cream (probably milk) and sugar. The coffee always tastes burnt and bitter. I'm not sure how they brew it or if it's instant, but it is always terrible. Next, the waiting area is kinda small, except if you're eating. They have free, fast WiFi though. The location is in an area of lots of street sleepers, which may or may not be dangerous. I never feel unsafe during the day, but I doubt I would walk around the area at night. Also, the street directly in front of the hotel is ultra crampped. Lastly, I usually go here for their "Fly the Bus" service to and from Angeles City. The price is 600 PHP each way, but the bus is now no longer used. Instead, they now use a shuttle that can usually stuff 8-10 people, depending on amount of luggage. Unfortunately, with this downgrade, the prices still remain the same. I guess the bus wasn't making money. I really wish they had a few more trips on their schedule, including an earlier trip to Angeles. The earliest trip they currently have is at 1130am, which is a bummer considering my flights sometimes arrive at 330am.

Update: I posted a picture of the Fly the Bus schedule

Greg Lins (09.08.2017 19:47)
If I could give zero stars, I would.

We stayed at the hotel because of the proximity to the US Embassy. That's the beginning and the end of any advantages to staying here. Do not stay at this hotel.

It is managed poorly, the workers aren't trained, and while they are pleasant they are completely non-responsive to solving problems. Here is a long list that I presented to the management:

- Shuttle bus pickup from airport was committed to be on time. Our party filled the shuttle, so we confirmed multiple times prior to arrival that the shuttle would meet us upon arrival. No shuttle, told to wait about 30 minutes - it was almost an hour. The hotel was a 30 min drive. Clearly the bus wasn't dispatched until after our call, against their promise.
- Check in confusion - mixed up our rooms and who would be in them.
- Poor condition of locks. Old style key entry and no deadbolt! We did not feel secure.
- Phone not working. Worse, after reporting it, there was absolutely no effort to fix it. They simply agreed that yes, it was not working.
- Since phone didn't work, to make any request from the hotel, we had to go all the way downstairs. As you will see below, due to all of the issues with this hotel, we had many issues that required us to walk downstairs. Maybe they didn't fix phones to make it more difficult for guests to complain.
- WiFi required two different passwords, one for the room and another for the lobby / restaurant.
- WiFi in room not working well, and then not at all. Had to go downstairs to use WiFi.
- Poorly organized front desk - sometimes nobody was there. Not that speaking to someone at the desk solved anything.
- Dirty towels
- Damp pillow???
- Cockroaches!!!!
- Poor restaurant experience. I wanted to charge my breakfast to the room. Oddly, the server told me to speak to the front desk to do so. I questioned this, and asked why, but I was assured that I needed to speak with the front desk. I went to the front desk, where I was told that the server was wrong, I needed to pay in the restaurant. I went to back to the restaurant with the front desk person who showed me where the cashier had a computer terminal. I paid the cashier, some 3 steps away from the place I spoke with the server that told me to go to the front desk.
- Cold potatoes
- Lack of do not disturb sign, had to walk downstairs to ask for one, which had to be requested from housekeeping, which was delivered to the room about 15 minutes later, interrupting us
- Drain problem in shower meant water accumulated
- Design problem in shower allowed accumulated water to spill over onto bathroom floor
- Needed to use room towel to clean floor, which helped us to connect why the towels were dirty
- Furniture was pretty beat

TOO MUCH!

I asked to speak with the hotel manager. I was asked to wait a few minutes. Determined, I waited 45 minutes until the reception manager (not hotel manager) arrived. The reception manager took down all of complaints during a 15-20 minute discussion. I asked her what the hotel would be doing to correct these things and make it right. She committed to speaking with the hotel manager and getting back to me. She did not.

Next, we learned our scheduled shuttle to airport had changed times and we would need to wake up 3 hours early to catch the new schedule, against commitments made at the time of booking. We pretty much lost it at that point.

The hotel manager happened to be there when we learned this, so we finally got to meet him. He learned of our complaints for the first time in the lobby, because the reception manager that committed to telling him about my litany of complaints never told him about them. As well, she did not inform the manager about our request to correct the situation somehow for us. So, the staff clearly hides problems from management.

In the end, the only concession made was to deliver us to the airport at the time they originally committed to.

Do not stay at this hotel.

I researched AirBnB listings after the fact, and for a similar amount it appears that you can get a LOT better accommodations.

Dave Hayden (25.05.2017 11:36)
Will flow aussie some news swagman hotel is not own by a aussie itd show vb beer on there menu and foster but they not have i had lunch there not good in service was not good and as a aussie go out side aand ask for a taxi people go swagman had there car at 500 peros its white tax lol i got a taxi and it cost 154 peros mmm so up to you bit not Aussie ok

Nikka Lorica (12.02.2017 18:40)
Location is near the US Embassy especially if you have your interview there, it's easy to take a taxi here to go to your destinations. Banks, restaurants, convenient stores and coffee shops are a walking distance away. However, the room I got was poorly lit, and it had tiny cockroaches.

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