Panorama de Argao — Hotel in Cebu

I do NOT recommend staying here. I’m not sure why the reviews on booking.com are so positive. The reviews, on Trip Advisor tell a different story, that are more in line with my experience. |We made the assumption that we could get to the hotel and book our tours once there. DO NOT DO THIS. I recognize that hotels always charge more, but this hotel is taking advantage of their location being up in the hill, not easily accessible to the main road nor close to a town to price gauge their clients once there. We found that booking your tours and transfers here will cost 70 to 80% more than other tour companies and hotels around the island. Ontop of that they do not have any shuttles from the hotel to the city so you can explore other options both in terms of tours and food. The hosts are not very open about their pricing either, so ask about everything before you agree, as we were quite shocked when the bill came and the amounts they were charging for each stop on a tour or an additional person just sitting in the car. So ask, ask and ask before agreeing to anything. Better yet, if you have to stay here organize your tours beforehand with another party. Examples of overpricing include airport transfer of 3900 vs others at 2500 pesos, A day trip of canyon and snorkeling per person at 5900 . . . do your research as these prices are ridiculously expensive. I wish I had before getting there. |The most upsetting part of the trip was our last night. I had asked for a transfer to our next hotel which was in the north and far. I asked if we could stop along the way to break up the trip. For two days we didn’t get any details of cost, what we could see on the way, or any updates on the transfer. When I queried about it one of the hosts said it was fine and they’ll get back to us. Suddenly the night before our departure, we started hearing about how difficult it is to book such things and how hard it was to find a driver. After much panicked discussion, the host at 8pm finally agreed they would do it, but for 18,000 pesos for three people!!! A transfer with some stops to a river and a hill with no additional details. That is a very expensive transfer so when we asked how much without the stops, the host got mad at us and saying that if we were not going to take this tour we should not have asked about it in the first place, and said he wouldn’t help us anymore and stormed off. Like I said this hotel uses deception, rudeness and a sense of panic, reveals prices at the last minute so you don’t have other options. In the end we settled on a transfer with no stops at 9500 pesos with the other host who would still talk to us. However, if we had not fallen for their last minute behavior and organized it ourselves ahead of time we would have paid less ( other parties quoted 7100, but the quotes came in after we had agreed with the hotel to take us and we didn’t want to experience more rude behavior from our hosts by cancelling). |Like other reviews, the food here is very good, but it is on the expensive side, but you have no other choice as the hotel doesn’t offer a way to the main town and the road to the hotel is not something you can set out by foot easily and not lit to do it...

My friends and I stayed here three nights. We absolutely admit the pool is great (a bit of wear and tear) and the food is delicious. ||||The rooms are basic at best, the showers have little water... none of that is the issue.||||The owners are very helpful admittedly but I can totally understand why others have suggested they are rude. One of the owners gave my friends an angry ultimatum and became enraged when they suggested they didnt want a 20,000php ride to another resort.||||The main issue here is that this resort is OK but very isolated. They trap you here and charge 85 PERCENT MARKUPS on everything. ||||They tried to charge us 20,000php for a transfer to our next resort (5 star very fancy and yet a third the price)... the fancy hotel charged us 7000php instead for the same journey.||||They misrepresent costs and constantly upsell. For example.... my two friends went on a tour for 5000php. I tagged along in the car for which they said there would be a 500php charge, for a seperate guide to stay with me when they did their trip.||||There was ZERO additional cost for me to jump in the private taxi with my friends, yet they charged us 3300 for a "drive tour" plus the 500 for the guide. ||||I would have stayed on the resort.||||Main dishes here, as good as they are, are 800php. 150 for the same in the touristy restaurants with waterfall views and 280 for the same at my 5 star next hotel.||||In summary.... they massively overcharge, lose their temper if you don't do things via them (as they are making 80 to 85 percent margins as we have calculated on various items by asking locals for prices) and hold you hostage unless you use their driver at a higher cost than a full night's stay at the 5 star.||||Seriously, there are other places with as nice views and whatever you save in room rate you will QUICKLY lose your shirt if you do ANYTHING once you and here and you are so isolated and vulnerable.||||Also they have dogs. I LOVE dogs. But... one dog had its period (sorry to gross you out) and was bleeding everywhere and the owners didnt put a diaper on her or anything. ||||For the money they were charging we had to ask three days to get our room cleaned once and get an extra blanket.||||When i begged for the room to be cleaned on day three the owner repeatedly told me how busy and stressed she was.... ||||Well then pay for help... surely you could have a huge staff for all you rob your customers in cash and avoid paying tax.||||I met a great guy there who told me he had showed up and they said "ooops we took your booking but have no room for you " and put him in the basement.||||Oh and the male owner kept hitting on my friend.||||I could go on and on but all I really want to express is if you spend 1/4 the money you can get much better.||||Please...

We stayed here for five nights in November and paid £371 which was about PHP24,696. I’ll point out the negatives first. This place is 3 hour taxi ride and 5 hour bus ride from Cebu international airport. It is quite remote with very little to do for tourists in Argao. The prices for food and drink are overpriced for Phillipines prices however if you’re a westerner these prices are still pretty cheap. The room is basic, shower not powerful and the WiFi drops out a lot. Bit of wear in the pool but nothing to go crazy over.||Now for the positives. The views are gorgeous especially at sunrise and sunset. We read previous reviews of this place before arriving and were worried about the hosts. I have to say they are the complete opposite to some of the negative reviews on here. The guy who owns it was lovely and very accommodating. He asked us what we wanted to eat and he would go the market and cook it. I had a barracuda fish for PHP800 - a mere £12. The food was freshly prepared, absolutely delicious and filling. ||With regards to the tours you can do in Cebu e.g. whale sharks and canyoneering I recommend you hiring a scooter and driving to the locations buying the tickets yourselves. You save a lot of money. For example. We decided to hire a scooter from the hire for a day to go canyoneering. Cost PHP600 - £9.50. Petrol over there is silly cheap so it was a couple of pound for a full tank. We drove the 2 and a hour hours through the mountains to get there. Once arrived sorted the tickets direct and paid PHP2,500 each rather than the PHP8000 the hotel charges each for transport, guide and ticket. I also managed to lose the keys to the scooter, the hotel owner was so nice about this and didn’t kick off. Remember we are 2 and a half hours away from the hotel. He arranged for a Philipino to take the scooter and bring it back to him the next day. Charged me PHP300 - £4.70 for a new key. Very nice guy. ||I recommend this place for a chill...