Outpost Hostel — Hotel in Coron

Outpost Hostel was recommended to me by three friends so even before taking the ferry to Coron, I was already set on staying here even just for a day. The day turned into 3 days. 😅

The rooms are spacious and clean, the people are friendlier and are not at all predatory unlike the party hostel I went to a week prior to booking here, and the staff are nice. I just think the shared toilets can be cleaner. I stayed in a 12-person dorm for 2 days, and got to stay in a private room for the final day. The dorm had so much space and the lockers were open so you can air out your damp swimsuits. You can also hang them in the rack outside but the space is limited. There are charging ports in each bed. They provide blankets and towels. If they had curtains for more privacy, it would have been perfect. But the data signal and wifi are sparse and spotty so accessing the internet would be tough if you’re inside the shared rooms. And I have to note that this is airconditioned. I assumed all party hostels were and was surprised to know that that isn’t the case for all. So this means no mosquitoes. Yay!

The private room has full access to the free wifi and also comes with Netflix. The bathrooms are clean and eclectically designed like the rooftop; the divider has Tanduay bottles cemented on it. Cute! There are also wooden ladders that serve as drying racks. The design is tropical but hip. There are sockets on each side of the bed (my gadgets run out of batteries like they’re on a New Year’s countdown so I really appreciate these features). There is a lot of storage under the tv, and there is a hairdryer hiding in one of the wicker baskets. However there is no shampoo, shower gel nor toothbrush and toothpaste; only hand wash so don’t forget to buy these toiletries from the stores right by the street if you don’t have some already.

They have events every night, and I was lucky to chance upon a party. For P350 there was unli nachos and pizza, which is a steal compared to the average price of meals in the town proper. There were so many games and I didn’t know I could have that much fun with people I had just met. There’s also an infinity pool that boast the views of the coastline and Mt. Tapyas. They have food and drinks all day so you don’t have to go out on a rainy day. Laundry is P300 per load I believe, and they have a dryer so you can get your clothes immediately. They offer airport van transfers for P250 for a hassle free journey, which I availed. I think the ferry transfer via trike is P150.

My friends were right in recommending this place. It surely did not disappoint!!! I would definitely come back and hopefully to paint one of...

Disappointing Stay – Not Recommended

We stayed for four nights at the hostel and paid a total of €624 for 2 double rooms. For this price, we had much higher expectations in terms of service, cleanliness, and organization. Unfortunately, we were disappointed in several areas.

Organization & Service: Communication was unreliable. For a booked tour, we were told the pick-up would be at 8:30 AM, but at 7:30 AM, while we were still having breakfast, someone came and told us the pick-up was already here. Also they didn’t inform us that we need to pay in cash and everything before the tour. On top of that we all needed to show an ID, also that wasn’t communicated. Additionally, the scooter we were promised l one evening was unavailable in the morning, even though we were told to simply ask in the morning. On the last day we came back to our room, they took away chips we had bought the night before to bring with us on our early ferry at 7 AM especially cause on friend is diabetic– since the restaurant doesn’t open before 7 AM, and we wouldn’t have bee able to eat. There was no explanation, apology, or any effort to resolve the situation. I also never stayed in a hostel where you can’t bring any food especially when there’s no kitchen and nothing.

Room: The room was generally clean, but often stuffy and had a noticeable musty smell. The toilet and light switches were old and appeared moldy. After cleaning, both of our room doors were left open once for more than 5 hours, which is a clear security issue. The bed was uncomfortable and there were no hangers for clothes or anything.

Restaurant & Food: The restaurant was chaotic. Our orders were often wrong or incomplete, and there was a hair in one of the pizzas. Many items on the menu were unavailable. Also way too expensive for what you get.

Noise & Atmosphere: Relaxing was nearly impossible: The cleaning staff made loud noise from 7 AM, particularly with their walkie-talkies and walking around right in front of the rooms. We had explicitly asked the front desk to take care of this, but the next morning it was the same situation – no effort was made to address our concerns. Also, around 11:30 PM, furniture was loudly rearranged. At the pool, relaxation was also difficult due to loud music and a lack of lounge chairs.

Other Issues: The towels smelled unpleasant, and the Wi-Fi barely worked.

Conclusion: For over €600 for four nights, we expected a much higher standard. Unfortunately, this hostel lacks basic organization, consideration, and service. In the past six months of traveling, this was the worst hostel...

We spent 2 nights at this hostel and my one recommendation is absolutely do NOT book through Expedia. We checked in and they told us they only had us booked in for 1 bed; thankfully my friend had taken a screenshot of the booking to show them. They acknowledged and said Expedia has been giving them some difficulties with bookings lately (about the 5-6x this has happened). We were separated but were told they would try their absolute hardest to get us in a shared room as definitely made it seem like it was going to happen. The next day we go out on our island hopping tour that we booked with the hostel and no staff member mentioned anything to us about moving rooms so I figured it would happen later. I come back to the hostel and open my door to see somebody else sitting on my bed and all my stuff gone. I go to check my friend’s room thinking maybe they moved me there as there was now an empty bed in her room. I asked front desk what was going on and they told me that they packed my stuff up and “checked me out” to move me into a new 12 person dorm after we had booked for 2 beds in a 4 person dorm. I personally found it extremely unprofessional and untrusting to have them packing up my stuff WITHOUT my consent: they said they had video footage of the person packing my stuff up but I still didn’t appreciate this. The front staff was very nice and accommodating and offered my friend and I private room, we initially thought at the hostel but shortly realized they meant off site at another hostel. We refused as we had already made some friends from the boat tour and wanted to stay as we also didn’t feel like moving all our stuff at 6pm only to be checking out early the following day anyway. I accepted the only empty bed they had. They fully refunded us for our second night but our first night should’ve also been heavily discounted at this point. As for the hostel itself: the rooftop bar is a fun atmosphere, they have nightly activities so we enjoyed trivia after the island hopping tour. Hostel food was decent, we split one of their pizzas. Facilities were communal but well maintained but nothing spectacular. Wifi was horrible which was extremely frustrating especially since my friend and I were separated so it made communicating even...