Teofel Hostel — Hotel in Cebu City

Stay here at your own risk!!! Not trustworthy and our money was stolen!!! It's a shame because the hostel is nice and clean, however the day we arrived, my friend caught one of the cleaners (a young woman with really short hair) looking through her belongings - her hand was in my friends bag and money had been taken out. We confronted the girl and told the manager, but she denied it and didn't even get in trouble or apologise, even though my friend saw her with her own eyes trying to steal from her. We should have taken it further, but believing the best in people we let it go. This was our mistake because the next day, 11,000 php ( $275 AUD) had been stolen. The money had been hidden in a different bag, so it's clear that this girl came back into the room with the intent of stealing the money and spitefully left 1000php ($25 AUD) behind.

There are no security lockers provided at this hostel (even though it was advertised as having them), despite this the hostel takes no responsibility if anything is stolen as stated in their house rules - as if they know that this will happen. It also states that hotel management will conduct an investigation to address these situations - this did not happen at all and we had to involve the police ourselves, who unsurprisingly couldn't do anything either, even though my friend had witnessed the staff member stealing. If management had listened to us when we first complained about their staff member attempting to steal money and acted accordingly instead of believing her lies then the money would not have been stolen the next day. In other countries she would have been fired, but she goes unpunished - dodgy hostel. You've...

In response to Teofel's reply to my friend Isabella's review:

I understand that guests have to take responsibility for their belongings, but being well traveled, I didn't want to take all of my money with me on the streets of an unknown city. As you say, normally every hostel worldwide provides lockers that you can actually lock, whereas what you provide is a drawer under the bed with no way of locking it and I was not told upon check in of the vault you say you can provide. Providing lockers that actually lock is a good enough security measure in a hostel and putting CCTV in dorm room is the wrong way to go and is an invasion of privacy.

The incident of me catching the cleaner red handed with her hand in my bag was brushed off as a lie; the cleaner denied it, saying she was cleaning and tidying the bed. In every hostel I have stayed at no staff member is allowed to touch the belongings of the guests and she had no right to be anywhere near my things (which were NOT scattered all over the bed as she claimed because I'd just arrived and I'm a tidy patron). In addition, I was the first to check into that room and there had been a cleaner in there as I arrived doing the cleaning of that room so I wonder how much more cleaning this other maid had to do when I caught her going through my things. You say this incident was resolved with the involvement of the police but it's hard for me to understand how exactly it was, as the police and the cleaner in question only conversed in Filipino without my involvement. On another note, the police flirted with me and made me feel very...

The dorm rooms are nice and clean but they advertised that there were lockers in the dorm rooms but there were none, so it’s a lie. This was the case in 2018 and after reading a review from January 2019 this is still potentially the case. I’m currently travelling in South America and the hostels here have better security than Teofel Pension House. ||||Even though I stayed here many months ago, I feel the need to write this review as my friend was robbed a large sum of money by a member of staff from the provided “lockers” that did not lock. She also witnessed the robbing taking place. ||||No disciplinary action was taken towards the cleaner who robbed my friend by management and when we involved the police they were sexually inappropriate towards my female friend, making her feel even more distressed and intimidated. ||||Obviously, the police behaviour isn’t the fault of Teofel Pension House, neither is it necessary their fault that she was robbed by a member of staff but they had a duty of care which they didn’t abide by and no proper establishment can profess to have proper security and lockable lockers when they do not. This is highly deceptive and not excusable. They will no doubt respond to my review, as they did on my google maps review, in an insincere manner, making false claims about what happened. ||||It is up to you whether or not you would like to trust this pension house, but at least I can warn whoever I can so they take the proper security measures with keeping their belongings safe....