Santiago Cove — Attraction in Ilocos Sur

Been visiting a few times this year, and the first time was pretty great. 4/5 ⭐️ but then slowly degraded over time with mixed experiences.

The gist of the comprehensive review: The rooms are decent and clean. Customer service is inconsistent. Food is alright if it gets served. Pool decent. Cocktails were inconsistent. Overall could be way better, but one of the better ones in the area.

The latest stay was the worst. I’d give it a 1 star, but that wouldn’t be fair to the few employees who tried to put their best foot forward. Lots of little things just made it a place we will no longer visit in the future.

Request for particular rooms approved prior, suddenly taken back on check-in due to lack of endorsements. Additional maintenance in rooms right after check-in, but thankfully fixed quickly, but it would have been better to be checked twice before handover. Dinner service was the worst, and definitely not so little problem already (for context limited food places; otherwise, we would have just left). So a big group had kbbq, which in hindsight, they should have told other guests and us to eat elsewhere or at their sister restaurant downstairs, which we found out later was the source of the ala carte orders anyways. told us that if we wanted kbbq, we would wait for the big group to finish first. We opted for ala carte and ended up waiting 43 minutes for a brewed coffee, 1 hour 5 minutes for half of our orders and finally 1 hour 17 minutes for the rest of our order to be completed. When some of our orders were served, over an hour later, some items were actually out of stock. Some of us had to leave to find food elsewhere since it was just unacceptable service. Some staff didn’t seem to care, but others did try to hasten others' orders. another guest was laughing as she’s never experienced such service. I’m guessing they may be overwhelmed with the holiday season, but they could have done much better despite the situation. didn’t stop there with the problems of our last stay. We made reservations for water sports at 8 AM the next day. Ended up waiting another hour since their operators were late and wouldn’t have gone if I didn’t follow up, so lacking endorsements again. checkout was the only more or less painless point of the entire time we stayed as we were offered complimentary drinks while we waited for our bill and the rooms to be cleared.

If management or owners ever read this, feel free...

I arranged a trip for my entire family during the weekdays to avoid the crowd but we were in for a surprise. The Resort did not have any food available at their restaurant. I choose the rate with breakfast hoping for the breakfast buffet that I read so much about. P 1,000 extra person charge with only 5 food choices for breakfast on our first day and the second day we only have 3 choices for breakfast that was written in a small piece of paper. We ordered food on our first day only to find out that they were buying the food outside and pricing it more. The resort is far from restaurants, fast food and market at least 15 km away less that 1 hr drive. Good thing the staff was very polite and accommodating but the staff should not be the one to make up for the lack of amenities and services at the resort. BTW I asked the person at the bar where was the breakfast buffet because the pans and food container were there but there were no food in them. He said " nagka problema po kami" maybe because we were the only once checked in. 32K is too much. We could have stayed somewhere else. Upon check out we were asked to pay for the extra person for each room when we settled and paid for everything the moment we checked in. I called reception to double check on our booking and requested for ground floor rooms. reception confirmed everything. upon check in it seems that they had no idea of the requests that they guaranteed. I was really...

This review only covers the Bougainvillea coffee shop , which is on the ground floor of the Santiago Cove Hotel.

The entrance is very clean and pleasant with some seats having a view over the bay. There is good range of drinks and cakes on offer for eating in or take away. Everything on sale is at a reasonable price and quality. A few customer service tips for one of the counter staff: try to smile and engage with your customers, don’t impatiently tap the calculator with your pencil when they are forced to make a second choice after they have been told some items are not available and , finally, refrain from looking at yourself in a hand mirror whilst making up the bill. A nice attitude and interest in your job works wonders!

That said, some of the other staff were extremely polite and helpful. They allowed us to visit the top floor to see the outside dining area. The nighttime views of Santiago Cove were spectacular. Toilet facilities everywhere...