Dusit Thani Mactan Cebu — Hotel in Lapu-Lapu

VERY LONG REVIEW: I have to commend the Marketing department of the Dusit Thani Hotel Mactan. We end up choosing this hotel because of what we've seen and read on their website & different sites online. Their marketing worked.

But just few hours upon arrival at the hotel, we felt we made the wrong choice. We should have opted to stay in Shangri-la Mactan.

We are a family of 15 (with a 93yr old, and 3 kids). That's a total of 6 rooms. Our group arrived 2pm until 3pm. We were made to wait until past 4pm to finally get to our rooms.

The worst part is, the room they gave for our mom, who's 93 yr old was at the farthest building. (At first I was elated when I learned that we got an upgrade, but it turned out the room they were offering was never ready in the first place because of some leaking issue. So we end up getting the room available at the moment- (after almost 2hrs of waiting!)

In all the hotels we stayed in different parts of the world, this is by far the worst experience we had. We were normally checked-in less than 15mins, especially if they knew we were travelling with an elderly.

I can go on and on about the 2hours wait. The point is, efficiency in the check in process of any hotel gives a huge first impression- good or bad- of how your stay will turn out to be. Afterall, we did pay a huge amount expecting convenience and at par service that comes with it.

STAFF: At the (tradewings, sunset bar, benjarong, lobby & pool area) were generally courteous & always smiling, some offer assistance with the wheelchair. The tradewinds staff during bbq dinner & breakfast even sang a happy birthday to our Mom & gave a cake, which made her very happy. To all- Thank you for the effort! We really appreciate it.

FOOD: ●Breakfast- good variety. Taho was a great addition. ●Bbq dinner- some dishes are delicious, but variety is limited for the price. ●Benjarong- (CNY set) love the green curry fish & roasted duck. The kids loved the chicken satay. (Great food chef Suthin!) ●Drinks(anywhere in the hotel)- very expensive (both non & alcoholic)

ROOM: (Me & my Mom stayed at two different rooms during our entire stay.) ●1st night- location was too far for any person with limited mobility. Bath and Toilet area- too narrow for people who needs assistance. 2 persons can barely fit in the cubicle without bumping with each other. The room was supposed to be a "gardenview" but all you can see were construction site outside the window. ●2nd night until check out- Location wise- this 2nd room was way better. We were transfered at building 1. Bath and toilet are also a bit spacious than the 1st room we stayed in. Still not pwd/elderly friendly- no handle bars; no bathroom seat for elderly (I requested one, and was given a monoblock... thanks to the housekeeping assigned that night.) ●i learned from others in our group that there's limit to the bottle water you can request per day- only 4 bottles per day!? WHY? I don't get that. If you have kids with you, surely you will need more than 4 smallbottles in a day.

VIEW: Beautiful view, there are areas one can get really good pictures. But... The sand on the beach is very rough. You can't walk barefoot on it. Will surely hurt your feet.

To summarize: I hope the Dusit Thani Mactan Management will seriously take into consideration all the lowest/negative reviews here in google. ●Improve your check in process- make it seamless and efficient. ●allot more rooms for pwd / seniors. Provide handle bars, chairs in the bath/toilet. ( in my opinion, building 1 is the best location for them- easy access, near lobby, near breakfast area, near restos and benjarong is in the same building)

TIP: keep all your receipts. You will need them upon check out, should there be some confusion in the bills. Always double check.

Now the golden question: Will I recommend this hotel? I'd rather not.

If you are travelling with family- with seniors & kids- and you want convenience that's worth your money, think twice.

You may however visit for a day just to experience the view...

Let me rant about our bad experience staying in this hotel for awareness for others. An honest review of a mom with a 1 year old baby. We booked 3 rooms via Klook.

Checking in here is so slow, but understandable since they need to verify the booking and need to fill out some information. They said that our 3 rooms were being assigned in different buildings since we are a group they will put us in 1 building only and the same floor and a connecting room ( take note it's them who offer this kind of set-up) so as the one who set this family vacation I'm so happy to hear it. But they said that they can give us only 1 room first, since the other 2 rooms are not yet available at the moment so that we can have the same floor and have a connecting room. So I agree since they give us assurance that after we go up to the first room they will follow up the 2 remaining rooms. But 2 and half hours of waiting there's no update of our room yet, so we went to reception again to follow up, they said that the room they can give us is in different floors, so I said what's the use of our waiting earlier when you said to us that you will give us connecting room with the same floor? So they said again that they will make up for this, can we just wait a little while again which is more than an hour of waiting and still no update. So we went back again to the lobby to follow up and they said no available room on that floor they promised to us and they can just only give us a different floor and not a connecting room. So we just agree, since we are so tired already and just want to sleep, so as a customer I'm waiting for any complimentary as their compensation for the damage they have done to us, but nothing they didn't even offer water for us since it's so hot, we even need to buy bottled water for 120p. See how poor their service is. So I asked how they compensate us for this damage, they said they will upgrade our room into a sea view with Extra beds( what's the use of extra beds? We are a checking in as husband and wife😑. So we went to our room and checked it and looked forward to a sea view and found out that our view is building under construction THERE'S NO SEA VIEW 😑 and no upgrade happened. And so I called the reception which is no one answering so we went down again to lobby AGAIN and asked them where are the SEA VIEW in our room was and they just apologized again that this happened to us. We looked like a fool begging them for a complimentary which it's them who RUINED our vacation. So they said they will extend our check out for 3 hours which is no use because they WASTED 3 hours of our time for waiting. And take note we have different appointments for the next day, we can't afford to waste our time just to avail there 3 HOURS COMPLIMENTARY extension 😑. Overall experience I'm so stressed staying at this hotel. And to think the price per room is not cheap and the service is not for a 5star Hotel. We only stay here for one night(thankfully) because we are trying different 5 star hotels here in Cebu. The way they treat us like we are FOOLS. at first I can understand because it's a long weekend, but the way they Handle our case is no class. The receptionist is so snobbish and unapproachable. It's 3am while composing these long reviews because I can't sleep on what happened to us. It's so frustrating, and take note I was still in this hotel while...

We chose Dusit Thani Mactan as the final stop on our four-week journey through the Philippines, hoping to relax and unwind before heading home. Given the hotel’s strong reputation, we had high expectation. unfortunately we were left deeply disappointed.

We arrived in the morning after our flight and were greeted by a receptionist who was cold and condescending. While we did receive a complimentary early check-in (which we appreciated), the overall attitude was unfriendly from the start.

Upon entering our room, we were shocked by the condition of the bathroom: moldy and discolored grout, orange and black-stained silicone and even visible mold in the rain shower unacceptable for a hotel that is only five years old. We reported this with photo evidence to the supervisor, Ruth, who reacted with visible annoyance and little professionalism. We were moved to a new room of the same category, but it had the exact same issues. After a third room change, we again found similar problems. Ruth emphasized that we would only be given rooms of the same category, which felt like an accusation that we were fishing for a free upgrade when in reality, all we wanted was a clean and healthy bathroom!!! I calmly explained my concerns about the health risks of showering with mold, but I didn’t feel heard or respected.

Later, the service across the resort continued to be disappointing. At the breakfast buffet, the food selection seemed large but lacked variety, and most dishes were bland. Staff were inattentive and unhelpful, often disappearing after a request without ever returning.

At the pool, we ordered food and drinks from the sports bar, but again waited far too long. A particularly upsetting incident occurred when my boyfriend ordered a can of cola. When he poured it into a glass, a piece of plastic was floating inside. He reported it immediately. Five minutes later, the sports bar supervisor returned with the drink and the plastic piece only to suggest that we had placed it there ourselves, claiming the drink had been with us for 20 minutes (it hadn’t). No apology, just a new drink left wordlessly at the table.

One of the most uncomfortable moments was when my uncle, who is Filipino with darker skin, came to visit us at the resort. Staff completely ignored him, didn’t greet him, and never asked if he wanted to order anything something that left us embarrassed and upset. Sadly, colorism is still an issue in parts of the Philippines, and this experience made it painfully clear.

As someone who is half Filipina but raised in Europe, I know how warm and welcoming Filipino hospitality can be. I had hoped to share that spirit with my friends, but what we experienced at this hotel was the exact opposite. We especially as Europeans were treated poorly throughout our stay and often felt unwelcome. I was genuinely ashamed of how we were treated.

The location of the hotel is also inconvenient there’s nothing nearby and you need a taxi for everything. On top of that, the hotel restaurant prices are absurdly high. You can find much better food in the city for one-third the price, even the cost of bottled water was excessive.

In conclusion: the resort grounds are beautiful, but the service was far below standard. This was by far the most disappointing hotel experience I’ve ever had and a truly unfortunate way to end what was otherwise a...