Villa Cali Siargao — Hotel in General Luna

An honest summary of a couples’ 4 day / 3 night stay at Villa Cali, Siargao:

Construction: On arrival, we were very happy with how the place looked, it is stunning. However, a few minutes after checking in and being shown to our room (1st floor), we were warned that there would be intense construction work from 09:00-17:00 everyday (with no proper warning or compensation for the inconvenience) [In June this year there was a fire which destroyed the entire of the 2nd floor so the whole floor above us was being rebuilt]. After being in our room for 10 minutes we knew we needed to change room. Reluctantly, they moved us to the ground floor where the noise was more bearable.

Service: On our second day, an electricity surge happened where there was a risk of the hotel generator catching fire or something as my girlfriend and I were ordering a coffee; we saw and heard hotel staff running away, leaving guests confused and scared. Only after us asking did we get an explanation and that we should move to a safer location - away from the generator. You would think that they would have a procedure in place to care/look after their guests - especially as this is supposedly what destroyed the entire 2nd floor in a fire? But in short, the service/warmth just wasn’t there - when it was, it felt very artificial. There were a couple of times we would even see a trio of the staff members clearly talking about you and laughing - very unprofessional.

Check out micro-management: Following the lack of service/warmth from the staff and management, a nice example was being rushed to leave our rooms with a knock on our door at 11:01 (check out is 11:00)… 11:01! I have never been to a hotel where they knock on your door to pressure you to leave less than one minute after check out time. Most will have a 15-30+ minute grace period. Really left us with a bad final impression of the place.

Rooms: Aesthetically, place is stunning. The lobby, the rooms etc. However the build quality didn’t seem to be there, small gaps between window/door frames meant that we’d wake up in the morning with an ants and mosquitoes everywhere. Our ground room toilet also smelt of sewage for the entire stay, no extractor fan, window that can open or ventilation in there either. Wifi speeds were also a bit questionable.

Review responses/attitude: As you read other review responses by Villa Cali management, it’s very easy to get a glimpse of the attitude issues that I raised earlier. Instead of taking constructive criticism onboard and addressing them/listening to their customers feedback - they become defensive and snap back. I even saw one response to a review questioning whether the customers are even sure they stayed at Villa Cali - wouldn’t be surprised if I receive a similar response denying half of what I’ve stated above instead of addressing them…

Unfortunately, we will not be recommending Villa Cali to any friends in the near future. But I do hope they fix up as they have the potential to be an amazing...

Where to start..

Pros; Aesthetically it’s a lovely hotel The air con in the room is really good

Cons; Room was not cleaned for the entire week we stayed there, no refreshments offered unlike other hotels. The hotel offers zero communication, prior to booking we asked if it would be a loud environment, they said this would not be an issue and we would be offered a second floor.. this did not happen.

There is ZERO sound insulation, all the rooms are directly in front of the pool , especially the one we stayed in. This means that when the Parties are in full swing over the weekend, you have no chance of getting an early night sleep. We had to check out at 4am and the party was going on well past 1am. Door closed or open, the sound was just as loud.

We arranged with the reception and payed the 700php fee for a taxi service to the airport at 4am we informed them this would be our checkout time. We woke up to checkout and there was nobody to be seen. We had to leave the key behind the reception desk in the hopes it was a safe location. We also waited for 30minutes , alone, for the transport to arrive which it did not. Luckily we flagged down a TukTuk to take us to the airport at half the speed of a van, almost making us miss our flight. We also had to pay another 700php. 1,400 total which I doubt we would get back.

We availed the free breakfast once as it was far to salty to enjoy, we ate out from then onwards.

If you are visiting Siargao for work reasons then this hotel is not for you, they are catered more for parties.

If you are coming for a party vibe then this hotel could suit you. Good location in between Cloud 9 and General Luna. They bring in what sounds like good DJ’s and make a real effort to throw a party. We just booked the hotel expecting a work retreat rather than a party...

My aunt from New York booked for Dec 2022 but our flight and entire trip got cancelled because of a typhoon. We paid around P72,000 for their penthouse for 3 nights. We asked them to refund our stay since we didn’t choose for it to be cancelled. It was the WEATHER. Any other resort would allow a refund because no one wanted this to happen, but they wouldn’t budge. Because my aunt flew back to the states, there was no way for her to use that penthouse booking. Instead, they offered that the booking would be made as a balance at their resort. I tried selling the booking on Facebook at a discounted price just so that we could get our money back. Villa Calli made it even harder because the the penthouse that we booked wasn’t available because of a fire. Instead of 3 nights at the penthouse, our booking was made into 17 nights for the deluxe room (which made it harder for us to sell) Just as we were about to sell the bookings, every time I asked if a room was available to sell, it was always BOOKED. Basically, they gave us 6 months to use the balance which was extended to 12 months. Even with that extension, we weren’t able to sell the booking because they were always booked. Anyways, our P72,000 is now watered as the resort didn’t offer to refund a single peso. Good luck booking with...