Lisuga Hotel — Hotel in General Luna

This is a new hotel that has potential, but also has a lot of work to do before I consider returning.

PROS: The design / atmosphere: the vibe on the hotel grounds is very nice, very chill, and fitting with island ambiance.

The staff: the staff are very helpful and friendly, and are doing their best. My travel buddy misplaced his wallet, and the staff did everything they could to support, showing great, consistent and personal hospitality and consideration.

The food: the Filipino breakfast options, while limited, were nice, and breakfast was included. They had a more elaborate multi-course dinner option that I would absolutely consider trying next time.

CONS: I should reiterate that I now understand just how new this hotel is, and that while Siargao is getting more developed, it hasn't caught up to the likes of - say, Boracay - yet - which can make some basic amenities inconsistent - know this in advance to digest the real expectations.

Location: the hotel is a bit removed from the main Tourism Road. The nearby roads are very unpaved, and undeveloped. Cars getting here will have a hard time.

Rooms: the rooms look nice, but are too basic. The only place to sit is the bed. The balcony has no furniture. The curtains are a liability. The curtain rod spans the exact width of the rod-supports. Any time I tried to open or close the curtains, the curtain rod fell, and the curtains fell off. This was frustrating. The room wifi is weak (but note that Siargao has weak wifi in general). The tv channel options did not work. The door lock, at least on my door, was a project to unlock everytime. Not fluid at all. The room light just above the bed did not competely turn off. Finally, the walls are paper-thin. I am a very light sleeper, and it was annoying to hear people in the hallways, people opening and closing their room doors, and people using their bathrooms. As a result, the room was not really a place I felt I could relax.

Expectations of what's working and available: I read a few other google reviews too late, but note that the hotel does not really have hot water. It's cool or just below room temperature. It's not the end of the world because of how hot Siargao is, but people will expect hot water, so this was a negative.

When I arrived back to the hotel late one night, the water stopped working altogether. The staff gave me a large multi-gallon bottle of water and a bucket. This should not happen.

Half of my stay, the hotel did not have coffee. It is beyond requisite that a hotel always have a basic amenity such as coffee.

In talking with the staff, I understand that from the plumbing situation to the unpredictability of supplies getting to the island, that things like above can happen. However, I've visited several places in the Philippines several times and this is the first time any of this has happened. It shouldn't happen at all at a hotel with a 4.6 star google review.

Finally, given the above, the hotel could improve communication about expectations. My travel buddy booked his room online through a different site than me (I used agoda). He thought he had paid for the room in advance. But upon arrival, the hotel staff told him that the hotel could only accept half payment, and he would need to pay the 2nd half upon checking out - and it must be in cash. While there are ATMs in General Luna, zero are near the hotel, and there is risk of them running out of cash. These kind of surprises should not happen. Better communication could have prevented this.

I will reiterate that Lisuga Hotel has upside, great guest-facing staff, and some very nice aspects. But it opened before it was ready, and left an irresponsible taste in my mouth. No hotel should be running like this, and should be far more considerate of even the basic expectation of a satisfying and consistent guest experience. If Lisuga Hotel can improve on the above, and shore up the inconsistencies, they will have a much more prospective...

This hotel has potential but has a lot to work on. Before booking here, take note of the following:

The pictures featured on Google are a mock up of what the hotel should look like in the coming years; it doesn’t look like that now. Currently, there’s no pool, spa, chill areas, etc. and the restaurant has less tables and chairs than there are guests and rooms, so if they’re fully booked, you’ll have to wait for a table to open up or share with others to avail of your breakfast.

I’m sorry to say, but the location is terrible. While it’s close to the main road in terms of distance, the hotel is located deep inside a small side street that isn’t paved, making it hard to come and go. Tuktuks charge you extra for having to go out of the way to get you there and walking / driving a motorcycle can be dangerous, especially when it rains, as there are many big holes and bumps on the road. Besides one other small hotel, there’s nothing else around this particular area.

The water smells like sewage. It’s so strong that it floods the whole room after anyone uses the bathroom. My group booked a couple rooms and it was the same problem for both rooms.

The rooms have balconies, but the sliding doors don’t fully shut, leaving a thin crack open. Again, it was the same problem for both rooms. Bugs can easily enter; we kept having to kill ants, spiders, and flies.

There’s no hot water. I didn’t mind it as much at first due to the heat and humidity of the island, but after taking a hot shower at a different hotel, it made all the difference.

Hardly any food is available, despite having an extensive menu. We stayed 4 days and the same 3 breakfast options were offered. Breakfast was alright; no lunch or dinner available at the moment. Expect to drink hot black coffee as there’s often no ice or milk, and expect to pay for it. Coffee is not included with breakfast and there are no other drinks available.

They don’t take credit card, only cash and Gcash. Foreigners typically can’t access GCash, and they hardly ever have enough change for cash payments so you end up overpaying.

They don’t clean your room, refill your water, change your towels, etc. unless you ask them to.

I gave this hotel 2 stars because of the incredibly kind, warm and welcoming staff deserve the extra star. They always have a smile on their faces and are quick to help when you need a tour, massage, tuktuk / motorbike, etc. booked. We were losing our minds here at one point but kept it to ourselves for the sake of the staff; they shouldn’t have to pay for the owners’ shortcomings.

If you’re considering booking this hotel to save on a few thousand pesos a night, you may want to reconsider. With tax, it comes out to about 4K a night, but there are much nicer hotels dead smack on the main road / close to Cloud 9 charging about 6K a night. Your peace of mind could be worth the extra 2K, especially since you end up spending that money on coffee and special tuktuk pickups by...

Great place, helpful staff and kind. Needs improvement on some services

Staff : super duper friendly, helpful and always there to assist.

Room : super clean and quiet

Room functions: the room that was assigned to us has no hot shower, but the staff offers us boiled water for showering. very nice gesture! No antenna/signal/digital box for tv. The wifi signal is weak so we had no choice but to use our own mobile internet to be able to watch YouTube as there is no local channel as well. We are at 3rd floor by the way.

Food: This needs to be improved especially for breakfast. When we were there our only options are pancake, corn beef, dried fish and scrambled egg. Though happy naman ako basta me egg. The pancake is a bit unusual, not the normal soft pancake you eat at home. The dried fish (parang daing) is a bit hard to bite, not sure if that's how it is, pero matigas talaga sya hehe.. Need to add staff like Chef / Cook because when we arrived at the hotel, I think between 1PM-2PM, the chef was on break. We were really hungry at the time, but since he was on break we had no choice but to wait for him to finish on his break. Not complaining on this because he deserved it but I think there should be a back up chef/cook if the other one is on break.

Location: the hotel is not located in the Tourism road. You need to ride a trike and travel for 5-10mins going to Tourism road where there are plenty of resto to choose from. The road going in and out of the hotel is rough road. So, some trike are charging us 150 per ride instead of 90 pesos only.

Pool : we were not able to use this as this is located not near our room. Plus, the pool is not that big.

Overall, it was a nice stay at the hotel and staff are courteous, helpful and always smiling which makes you feel welcome.

Thank you guys for...