Charlie's El Nido — Hotel in El Nido

I can only give this hotel 5 out of 5 stars. We visited El Nido for the first time in June and stayed at Charlie's for several days. We had a double room with pool access. The room was spacious and clean. We were completely satisfied and felt very comfortable. ||In August, we returned to El Nido for a workation and had originally booked a different hotel, but after the first night we were so dissatisfied that we wanted to leave immediately and booked Charlie's online. |Upon arrival at Charlie's, we were greeted warmly and, before checking in and looking at our details, we were welcomed with: ‘You've been here before, haven't you? Welcome home.’ You can't ask for more than that.|We got the same room as in June and stayed for 15 days this time.||The breakfast buffet is extensive, and in the morning you can also choose between a Filipino or American breakfast, which is then freshly prepared for you. You can also have pancakes or scrambled eggs with various ingredients, no problem. During our stay, Lyn and Bon took good care of us and the other guests in the mornings!||The rooms are cleaned daily on request, but this was not necessary for us as we worked in our room after breakfast. If we wanted new towels and the bed linen changed, we simply informed the reception when leaving the hotel and everything was ready when we returned.||Speaking of the reception, they took care of all our concerns, whether it was the Wi-Fi, which we needed to be stable and fast for work, island hopping, questions about a land tour (from Joseph – a great tour guide), questions about a hot water bottle for my wife's cramps, towels for the beach, the question of whether our flight would take place on the day of departure, as a violent thunderstorm was brewing in the morning and only small 40-seater planes fly from El Nido, were answered at all times and alternatives or solutions were always found! Mr Taneo drove us to the airport by shuttle and told us that if the flight was cancelled, we should call him and he would arrange for us to be taken to Puerto Princessa by van so that we could fly from there in a larger plane.|My wife is really afraid of geckos and lizards. We had one in our room on three evenings, and when we asked at reception, a maintenance technician and a member of the housekeeping staff came immediately and removed it. |We got talking to Mr Estrada and he told us about a basketball game, so we went there in the evening by scooter and what can I say, those guys can play! Now, during the rainy season, there is a tournament: El Nido Inter Hotel Basketball Friendship Games. If you are in El Nido and like sports, support the team! The games take place opposite the primary school.|But back to the point.|The hotel and, above all, the staff are a prime example of the friendliness, attentiveness and helpfulness for which the Philippines are known. They know what it means to be a host.|And I know what I'm talking about. I am a trained hotel manager and have worked in various hotels in Germany for 12 years.|Of course, our impression and opinion are very subjective, but for us, everything about this hotel is perfect.|Unfortunately, we don't know all the staff members' names yet, but we will change that. We'll be back soon!|Thank you for everything!||Sir BJ...

I can only give this hotel 5 out of 5 stars. We visited El Nido for the first time in June and stayed at Charlie's for several days. We had a double room with pool access. The room was spacious and clean. We were completely satisfied and felt very comfortable.

In August, we returned to El Nido for a workation and had originally booked a different hotel, but after the first night we were so dissatisfied that we wanted to leave immediately and booked Charlie's online. Upon arrival at Charlie's, we were greeted warmly and, before checking in and looking at our details, we were welcomed with: ‘You've been here before, haven't you? Welcome home.’ You can't ask for more than that. We got the same room as in June and stayed for 15 days this time.

The breakfast buffet is extensive, and in the morning you can also choose between a Filipino or American breakfast, which is then freshly prepared for you. You can also have pancakes or scrambled eggs with various ingredients, no problem. During our stay, Lyn and Bon took good care of us and the other guests in the mornings!

The rooms are cleaned daily on request, but this was not necessary for us as we worked in our room after breakfast. If we wanted new towels and the bed linen changed, we simply informed the reception when leaving the hotel and everything was ready when we returned.

Speaking of the reception, they took care of all our concerns, whether it was the Wi-Fi, which we needed to be stable and fast for work, island hopping, questions about a land tour (from Joseph – a great tour guide), questions about a hot water bottle for my wife's cramps, towels for the beach, the question of whether our flight would take place on the day of departure, as a violent thunderstorm was brewing in the morning and only small 40-seater planes fly from El Nido, were answered at all times and alternatives or solutions were always found! Mr Taneo drove us to the airport by shuttle and told us that if the flight was cancelled, we should call him and he would arrange for us to be taken to Puerto Princessa by van so that we could fly from there in a larger plane. My wife is really afraid of geckos and lizards. We had one in our room on three evenings, and when we asked at reception, a maintenance technician and a member of the housekeeping staff came immediately and removed it. We got talking to Mr Estrada and he told us about a basketball game, so we went there in the evening by scooter and what can I say, those guys can play! Now, during the rainy season, there is a tournament: El Nido Inter Hotel Basketball Friendship Games. If you are in El Nido and like sports, support the team! The games take place opposite the primary school. But back to the point. The hotel and, above all, the staff are a prime example of the friendliness, attentiveness and helpfulness for which the Philippines are known. They know what it means to be a host. And I know what I'm talking about. I am a trained hotel manager and have worked in various hotels in Germany for 12 years. Of course, our impression and opinion are very subjective, but for us, everything about this hotel is perfect. Unfortunately, we don't know all the staff members' names yet, but we will change that. We'll be back soon! Thank you for everything!

Sir BJ...

We loved our stay here! the place, the always welcoming staff, the facilities, the free shuttle to the beach and townsquare.

There are, however a few things that although minor, keep me from giving 5 stars:

Our room (#215) had a humidity issue, there wasn't any mould or anything but our clothes all became wet, just like the bed sheets, so I gave my feedback and told them they should get a dehumidifier for that room because otherwise there were no issues with it, but it might be relevant for someone with breathing issues.

We booked without breakfast included but were happy to hear that we could have it "a la carte", which we thought was great as we don't eat that much and this way would avoid overpaying for having just coffee/tea and a toast. However, it doesn't work like that, you pay for a set breakfast menu, Continental/American/Filipino etc, so you can't choose the individual things you want to eat, as you would if it was a la carte. We chose the continental one but couldn't even choose our bread (there was sourdough bread in the buffet but we were served an overly soft loaf barely toasted, and the milk I asked to have with tea was the bare minimum, not even half cup, so we couldn't help but feel like second-class guests even though we were paying for the food. I would recommend making people pay only what they eat but letting them choose, or set a daily rate and let people have whatever they want for that day, otherwise it's the worst of both worlds, paying but not being able to choose what to eat. For this reason, after this experience in the first morning we always had our breakfast outside the hotel.

The wifi access is unnecessarily complicated: we need to get a few papers from the reception, each with a different password to login but they expire fast. Sometimes I would forget and put my phone in flight mode and when trying to connect back, the credentials were already obsolete.

A minor thing that is more of a nice to have than a bad thing:

We made the most of the shuttle rides both to Lio beach and to TownSquare, and felt the schedules were adequate overall. However, with the last shuttle from TownSquare to the hotel at 10pm, we ended up having to pay for a tricycle back to the hotel as we stayed in town until a bit late every day to have a drink at the town bars. So it would have been great if the last shuttle was a little bit later not to rush things. This is a minor thing, however, compared to the topics above.

Overall a great stay in a great place and I feel all these things can be addressed relatively easy! Highly...