Mazawa Siargao — Hotel in General Luna

We like the setup of the place. When you get in, it looks like you’re in a beachside property, when actually it’s just along Tourism road/ not beach front. Size of the room is modest and you can hear the guest/s in the next room. Bathroom is small and pressure from the shower is weak so we ended up using the pail & dipper instead. On the plus side, they have a kitchen that guests can use should you want to cook.

There are areas that need improvement though:

1. booking/ management - we paid DP to secure our booking, but day before our arrival, they offered a room at another resort for a lower price. I asked what the catch was, and they said the owner showed up unannounced. We agreed initially as the photo of the place/ villa they shared looked ok, even the photos on the Facebook page of the resort (plus we were offered a lower price). But to our surprise when we got there, the other place was still on soft opening & construction was ongoing. Messaged the Mazawa page about the construction, which we were not made aware of. Eventually they were able to sort things out, but we practically begged to get our original booking back and it’s not good that the Mazawa page kept on saying we agreed to the new arrangement hence we were bumped off/ moved to that other place.
2. there’s no front desk - no one to assist you upon arrival or whenever you need anything. We just rely on the Facebook page (contact # on the page not accessible either).
3. no duplicate key - we accidentally locked ourselves out/ left our key in the room. According to Mazawa, the guest before us lost the original key and so what we had was already the duplicate. So they had to destroy the lock of the room. Luckily Siargao is a safe place so we weren’t too worried about theft as we were leaving the place early for a tour the next day. And to be fair, the Mazawa page offered to keep my laptop with them overnight/ while we were on tour.
4. bathroom wasn’t too clean (found some plastic/ tissue floating as I showered soon as we settled in the room) - I think it’s because they had to rush cleaning the room for us since there's been a mix up in the booking. They could’ve asked for more time to settle the room as needed. We were okay to leave our bags with them while we step out to grab late lunch anyway.
5. sampayan - they need to have an area for guests to hang their clothes. Guests hanging their bras/ towels, etc out to dry on the bench at the lounge/ common area is such an eye sore. 🙈

Overall a good enough place to stay/ sleep in if you’ll be out most of the time anyway. Hoping Management can improve on the areas...

It's just horrible. In addition to internal points (such as the neglected condition of the housing, the shower that barely drips, the strange taste and smell of water, the lack of minimal noise insulation in the rooms), every evening the employees or owners of the hotel gather under the guest room or in the neighboring rooms and make noise until late at night also a bright light is on that shines right into your eyes in the middle of the night, the curtains on the windows are too thin to protect against it. It is simply impossible to rest here. And in addition to this, for no reason, you are asked to move to another room on the other side of the city for one night!

UPD: The administration was loyal and attentive to the above-mentioned points and did everything possible to improve the situation. For this...

My review has nothing to do with the place and everything to do with the girl that works front desk. I stayed 1 night and had to move out because it was a little over budget for me. I lost my tablet in the van that took me from the airport to Mazawa, she did everything she could to help me retrieve it and I got it back! She’s helpful, friendly, and overall just a really...