Pawikan Resort — Hotel in Cebu

The hotel was clean, although it is important to understand that a spotless white bathroom can only stay that way if it is not used ) The room also has no closets, only shelves. But for a short stay, it's ok. If you want to get to the beach, you have to go through the hotel next to you, where you can also have dinner. The staff at the pawikan hotel was incredibly caring and helped us arrange a scooter rental for 400 pesos a day. The hotel offers cocktails and drinks for an extra cost. Water was free. Now a couple of problems that disrupted an otherwise pleasant stay. First, the air conditioning in our room was quite loud. and we couldn't help but ignore the incessant crowing of the roosters next door, who seemed to have a built-in alarm clock set for 4am. I can't blame the hotel for the roosters, though; they seem to be pretty much everywhere in Moalboal. The only thing that really ruined our experience was the transfer to Cebu. Transfer is offered by the hotel. The drive to the hotel was fine, despite the four-hour duration. However, when we asked for a morning transfer to the airport, things took a turn for the worse. The cab arrived with two people. We were immediately asked to pay one of them PHP 3,200, which raised some doubts. The other man, the driver, tried to shove our suitcases into the trunk, but it wouldn't close. In short, we spent four hours in the car with faulty air conditioning, almost all gauges not working, and the general feeling that we were riding in a horse-drawn carriage. After this trip, I was aching all over and had a fever due to overheating. While this problem does not reflect directly on the hotel, it would have been better if they had provided a transfer that was either quality or at least not unhealthy.

Regardless, the hotel is good enough in terms of...

We stayed here for three nights. It's a small resort with only four rooms, but the rooms and property were very clean and meticulously cared for. The room comes with WiFi, a king-size bed, a keyed safe for valuables, a refrigerator, and plenty of bottled water. Our room also had a TV that was available for streaming. Note that the bed only comes with a sheet, no blanket or comforter. They also offer scooter rental for 450 pesos/24 hours. The staff was very kind, friendly, and helped as much as they could. We exchanged WhatsApp contact information with the staff, so they were always available to assist us even if we were off property. Each morning, the staff personally prepared either a Filipino or American style breakfast. Both were great!

A couple of notes about the location and property: The property is NOT near the main street of Moalboal. It's about a 20 minute walk and some of that is through the backyards of some local residents. If you're looking for convenience to the main street and night life, this is not it. On the map, it appears to be very convenient to the ocean, but the ocean closest to the resort cannot be accessed due to a steep, rocky cliff. Additionally, the residential property immediately next to the resort has several dogs who like to bark at every little thing throughout the night, so unless you're a very heavy sleeper, you'll need the earplugs supplied by the staff. Then after the dogs finally fall asleep around 2:00 am, approximately 41,237 roosters begin to crow around 4:00 am. uggggghhhh

In summary, the resort and the staff are absolutely great! The only issue we had was the inconvenient location, the barking dogs, and crowing roosters when...

Booked 2 nights but left after 1. Upon arrival the toilet was full of tissue, no towels in the room. Beddings were stained, informed the staff who did nothing to rectify the issue. Asked to see the management in the morning but obviously there is no management at this "boutique hotel". At nearly 4k per night I don't expect 5 star luxury but clean bedding is the bare minimum, not changing it is unheard of in the hospitality industry. Real curtains would have been nice rather than low quality blinds that don't fit the windows and see through material that does absolutely nothing. You can hear every word spoken from the room next door, this also isn't what you want. They canceled my booking as soon as I checked out so I was unable to leave a review on booking.com, must happen a lot it's why it has such high ratings. Location is poor, 3 dirt roads to get there so if it rains you get covered in muck just walking 5 minutes to the main road. This place is a joke, cost me 7.8k for a night (non refundable booking) in a room with no curtains, dirty beddings and a terrible breakfast to top it off. No attempt to resolve the issue in the morning either just a poor excuse of the staff last night was new and a half hearted apology. Checked out early and took the hit, booked a place a street over for a fraction of the price that at least understood the basics of hospitality. See photos of the beddings they expect their PAYING GUESTS to sleep...