HAPPY TIME EL NIDO — Hotel in El Nido

This place should be called 'Sad Times' ||||Summary - 'Dirty and unacceptable living conditions, false advertisement, very very rude and unhelpful staff.'||||Transfer: ||||We had booked accommodation for four nights and had been in contact with the manager via text message. We were nervous arriving at midnight but had been reassured as they have a '24 hour' reception and were also kind enough to arrange an airport transfer. When arriving at the departure, no sign of a driver with our name on it, we phoned the manager which he did not answer for about 30-40 minutes. He finally answered when some kind Filipino woman from a taxi rank phoned from her phone. He assured us someone was coming for us, however; once arriving in El Nido, we would need to arrange our own way to the accommodation as his staff would have been working all day and tricycles are not aloud on the beach past a certain hour. ||||On arrival to the beach at 12am. The place was deserted and finding 'Happy Times' in the dark was a nightmare. We walked for ages asking the odd local that would appear and finally found the place in darkness, we compared photos to the place to confirm we were at the right place, 24 hour reception apparently. Not a person in sight, besides being told someone was waiting up for us. We found someone living next to the property who kindly came and helped us, knocking on the managers door and his wife appeared who let us in to our rooms. ||||Accommodation. ||Booked 2 double rooms, we got that. Plus a bunk bed squeezed into them meaning no room at all, wouldn't see this from they're photos. Dirty taps, sinks, bedding. Really disgusting but we needed to get our heads down for the night, and get out of there first thing in the morning. Next morning our friends woke us up pretty early, 6-7am. They had no curtains and were woken up in the silly hours of the morning waiting for a reasonable time to get us up, we grabbed our bags and left. ||||Staff:||This is the worst part. ||||The 'Wife' of the manager came out of her room as we were leaving to find her and pay. We told her we were leaving and would happily pay for 1 night only and let her know how we felt about her accommodation. She became very aggressive and did not listen to anything we were trying to tell her. "This is the Philippines, not England' as we weren't happy with the conditions of the room, she also said we were paying for four nights or she will call the police. She phoned her husband who was away who finally got put on the phone to my friend, we told him we had no curtains in the room and he went on one. Shouting that we need to listen and we're not leaving without paying.. we finally agreed to pay for 2 nights just so we could go without getting screamed at. We contacted bookings.com and it sounds like they are not responding to the matter. ||||Could say more but I'm sure this builds enough of a picture, we ended up finding a really nice place down the road and enjoyed the rest of our trip...

The place is too far from the town proper. You need to walk I think 10-15 minutes from the main dropoff point to Happy Time. You can ride some motorcycles during daytime though. You will pass a cemetery along the way (added adventure during night time lol) no light posts along the way so expect to make use of your flashlights unless you want to experience the darkness.

❌ There is NO WiFi on where we stayed (there is a WiFi available in the rooms near the 'front desk area' but wasn't able to use it long enough as it was gone several minutes after I was connected - that was during breakfast at around 7-8am!). We need to use our data connection; however, the signal is veryyy weak in the area.

❌ The dorm type rooms are somewhat dirty, the electric fans were not regularly-maintained as it looks like it wasn't cleaned for months! ❌ Towels are not proactively provided, you have to go down and request for it. ❌ The shower and faucet in the bathroom produce water VERY WEAK! Some people in the room should wake up early in order for all of us to take a bath before our call time. ❌ There is no trashcan in the bathroom, I was able to find one in our last day OUTSIDE the room's door. ❌ The blankets provided are TOO THIN, so I need to used 2pcs plus my shawl. ❌ The dorm type rooms (good for 6pax) only have 3 electricity outlets available for all of you. One port will be used for the electric fan while the other 2 ports will be shared by everyone. ❌ The toilet bowl did not flush in the 2nd or 3rd day so I need to use the water bucket (luckily I have stack up some water beforehand). ❌ The staffs do not know how much each room costs, they will just tell you to talk to the manager about the price (seems like the price varies depending on some factors? Lol). They are not that friendly (at least from what I experienced), they look like they have a problem always.

We weren't able to take pictures of the area as we were already dead tired when we reached the place and forgot about it before leaving surely because it's not that pic-worthy in the first place. We arrived at around 1 am from a 4 to 6-hr ride from Puerto Princesa then need to take a walk with all our heavy baggage just to reach this out-of-nowhere place. The manager said that they offer transfer services but only until 8pm if I recall it correctly. But, basing on the available transport vehicle parked in the area, it can only accommodate the luggage, not the people.

Our stay there aren't that happy, it's rather tiring and meh. We will definitely go back to El Nido in the future but surely won't come back...

Me & my family planned a getaway with my cousins to find this tourist trap, we booked from booking.com to only find out that the pictures were fake! ||Pros:|It’s in el nido |There’s chickens running around ||Cons:|When you arrive you will find out you have to walk 10-15 mins to the “hostel” because only private owned tricycles can enter this part of town, it’s past the cemetery ||There is no WiFi at all, no air conditioning, nothing for you to do while you’re their (no tv) ||The bathroom is ridiculously small, the shower is so weak I would have been better off with a bucket and a “tabo” to wash ||Also, when they say tent... they really mean a tent. Not a room (booking.com how could you let people fool us like this) ||We had to cram up in our rooms. ||Also the bedding sucks, it’s just a topper not even a mattress ||If you want to experience what the locals do then this is a perfect experience but if you are looking to relax this is not the place, go book your trip...