Eon Centennial Soho Hotel, Cebu City — Hotel in Cebu City

Before booking EON Centennial Hotel, I made sure to read reviews—both the positive and negative ones. One negative review that stood out was about being charged for stains that the guest claimed they didn’t cause. I kept that in mind during my stay and made sure to be extra careful.

We arrived late, around 6 PM, and the confusion started with parking. There were no clear signs or directions to the hotel parking area. We initially parked at the City Soho mall, only to find out it was closing soon and wasn’t the right area. We were later told that the hotel parking is near Bos Coffee, which again had no clear signage.

Once we reached the right entrance, a guard stopped us, and we had to pay a ₱1,000 deposit for the car park. That part was fine, though a proper receipt would have been appreciated. Parking is located on the 6th floor, but the numbering system was extremely confusing. The slots assigned to hotel guests are 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6—but right beside those were completely unrelated numbers like 42. The slots are near the elevator, but it still took time and guessing to figure it out. It felt like guest parking was an afterthought.

Upon check-in, the staff just asked if I read all the reminders without her going through it which is okay. They warned about possible late checkout charges, which they said were subject to room availability. That was understandable. The room itself was very basic, and the blind curtains were broken. I asked my sister (whom I stayed with) to document the room with a video just in case anything came up later.

Amenities were minimal—just bottled water and a kettle. We didn’t feel especially safe staying there either. The building has a lot of foot traffic and anyone can easily access the residential areas, especially at night. I went out around 1 AM to buy something, and although there was a guard, the access felt too open for comfort.

We were on the 27th floor, and another inconvenience was the slow elevators. Only two were operating, and during peak hours, like morning, the wait time was frustrating. One elevator wasn’t working during our stay, which made things worse.

We also didn’t get to use the pool. My sister felt it was too cold and not very clean, so we skipped it altogether.

On checkout day, I asked my sister to prepare to leave before noon since I had to attend a seminar. I packed everything early and went to retrieve the car while my sister waited in the room. Around 12:10 PM, the hotel called and I politely told them I just needed 10 to 20 minutes to rest and we would be heading down shortly. The staff member on the call said “okay” — but at no point did they mention any late checkout fee.

We went to the front desk around 12:30, and that’s when they suddenly told us we had to pay ₱150 for late checkout. I was surprised, since I had already informed them we were leaving soon, and they had not mentioned any fee on the phone. I even told them it hadn’t been a full hour — yet they insisted that anything past 12:00 is automatically counted as one hour and must be charged accordingly.

This felt very inconsistent and unfair. A simple heads-up during the call would have avoided the surprise. It’s not about the ₱150 — it’s the principle and the lack of transparency that really...

Where should I begin? We arrived at the Eon Centennial Soho at around 8:30am. As two young female travellers, who had not slept in over 30 hours (as we had travelled from northern Thailand), we expected to be greeted at the property a lot better than we were. Check in at the property was not until 2pm, so obviously we were quite a few hours early. However, we knew the room was free as the reception staff had offered us to be allowed up straight away. This came at at the price, however, of simply spending another night at the property? Obviously we declined this offer and said we would wait until we could check in free of charge and proceeded to settle down on the sofas in the lobby to have a sleep. After both being asleep for around 45 minutes, we were woken up by the reception staff who told us we ‘weren’t allowed to sleep here’. This begs the question why they wouldn’t just allow us into our evidently empty room upstairs? We were finally allowed into our room at 12:30pm. We spent 2 nights at this complex, which was actually lovely. Now for check out. We were due to check out of our room by 12pm (midday), however, as we had booked a day trip to Oslob, we were scheduled to get picked up from the hotel at 2:30am. We arrived down in reception at around 2:35am expecting to see our tour guide waiting for us, however no one was there. At this point, we decided to hand our keys in and effectively ‘check-out’, before sitting back on the sofas and waiting for our tour guide to arrive. Obviously at no fault of the hotels of our own, our tour guide failed to turn up and at 3:15am we explained the situation to the reception staff and asked if we could go back to bed, to which the reply was ‘no’ as the room had already been cleaned and prepared for new guests - even at that time in the morning. Frustrated and tired, we sat back on the sofas and contemplated booking an early morning ferry to our next destination, however after looking into where to book exactly, we decided to book a 2pm ferry instead. At around 5am we headed back up to the counter at reception and asked again if we could have our room until out contracted check out time, to which the reply was again no. However, this time we stated that the room was still ours until 12pm and that we expected to be allowed back in our room that we had paid for until said check out. At this point, the hotel staff offered us another room, what a joy. However, and this bit is laughable, it was a dirty, used room (by a young couple) that had checked out whilst we were sat in reception for the past 3 hours. Given the time and exhaustion, we decided just to take this room. It was either that or trying to sleep on the sofas again, which we had already been told we couldn’t sleep on. After sleeping in somebody’s else’s dirty bed sheets - and they’re room being horribly filthy also - we officially checked out of the property at the check out time, not even receiving a smile or a goodbye as we exited. We feel as though, as 2 young female travellers, we were taken advantage of at every possible opportunity and had this have been an elderly couple, this experience would have been totally different and handled in a much...

Our overall impression was good. First in the small mall it is at the right end corner...not so representative, and even without a nice lobby, but 24/7 security, very friendly and helpful. The single receptionist was a bit neutral, not unfriendly, but also not too assisting.

The swimming Pool, about 18m long (!) is quiet (no daypass for external visitors), seems to be clean, has a huge relaxing area and an outstanding view over the barrangai Guadalupe, from the Mountains in the West, to Seaside Mall and to Mactan in the East. Perfect for relaxation, or to start the day (only self-brought water allowed;- no serviced food or drinks -yet?).

The single hotel-owned Fitness room in the same floor is spacious, seems hardly used, has not too old equippment and all the basic needs. The neighboured kids-playroom is nice, but no peronnel/ not stuffed, and it was very quiet;- but still it has been thought about!

The ROOMs we saw were clean, as so the floors/ - to my knowledge "only" 2 higher floors, with some 26+ rooms each. The matresses are fairly new and good (we had one king-size bed, the unhindered view spectacular!- the wide kitchen, about 1,80m with a sink, no fridge, no heating plate, and we have been told, cooking is not allowed, also no rice!?

The TV was in our room fixed at a wall above the small desk (ca. 0,8 x0,5m deep), and 90 degrees to the bed !?- not able to turn (from there almost not watchable)- might be better though in other rooms. The corridor was wide (ca.1,2m)- some storrage and the bathroom is thin, but nicely seperation of shower and toilet with the bathro- sink and mirror in the middle- fully sufficient and clean, fairly new!

The nice balkony (place for 2 chairs and possible a small 40cm round table) is locked, not allowed to open!?- the windows are dirty from outside! (Maybe this could be discussed with the Management prior to booking;- same as TV)

The price on agoda or booking... is about 25-30% cheaper than for walk-in guest!? No weekly or monthly prices offered!?-

The Departementstore in the basement, hardly only visited by Nationals, is well sorted and about 5-10% cheaper than Robinsons or others;(- besides Carbon-streetmarket, particularly in the early morning hours, the cheapest store I encountered in Cebu over the last one year).

The small shopping mall offers a good backery, Bo's Coffee, a pharmacy, shawarma...and eth for the urgent need. 2 prestigious hospitals are very close by and the huge variety of streetfood (Punka Punka;- if you trust) to the left is quiet good and cheap.

Transportation (chipneys and taxis) directly on the street

Overall it is a good value for money!- Good for a few days/weeks. Good location, clean, excellent view, not too booked yet, great...