Palm Tree Guesthouse — Hotel in Larena

SCAMMERS ALERT. We rented a bike and payed the bike with bank transfer. Gina ( guessing she's the owner because all review speak about her ) said would leave the bike in the pier and the keys in the tourist police. We arrived and tourist police didn't had anything. We tried to call the hotel through the number here in Google Maps ( number invalid ) we tried to get in contact with the booking number and also, invalid number. Also the tourist police tried to contact her and nothing. We ended up renting a bike in the pier to keep with the plans we had. She finally answer our messages in booking saying she thought we would arrive on the next day that's why the bike wasn't there so for us to get our money back to go to her property and get the refund. We got there on the next day and noone was there in the reception... We waited for like 20 minutes and this woman arrives and we said what we were there to do, to get our money back from the bike that we payed for 3 days. This woman starts to give the craziest excuses. First she says that Gina had to leave urgent to go to Cebu for a family emergency. We said was okay but we have her messages saying to go there to pick the money... This woman says she can't give us the money so we asked for Gina phone number to call her and explain, this lady says that Gina broke her phone and she has no cellphone at the moment and that's why she was in Cebu to buy a new one. First was to get a family emergency then was the phone problem. We still asked for the number because she can get a new phone but still have the same number. This woman keeps saying she doesn't have her number to which I asked her how she gets in touch with the owner of she doesn't know her cellphone number. If there's any problem in the hotel how can they contact someone ? Either is a water problem, a bike problem a checkout earlier... Anything .. she suddenly starts faking she doesn't understand english that well. Bare in mind this was a 15 minutes conversation and in the end she starts behaving like she's not understanding. We realized there was nothing else to do and we report the property on booking in scam and fraud department. If you want to have holidays without problems just stay away and get other hotels. There are tons of them. Don't go to this one, will save you some headaches.

Funny thing in the end we thought that this woman was the same Gina, the owner. Because her family ( kid and a daughter ) were living there like a private house inside the property and the kid called her mom so clearly she's not a friend of the owner as she said. She was clearly living there. And we checked the Instagram of the property and Facebook and there's pictures with her and other tourist couple with the subtitles " thank you Gina ".

So if you want to have holidays without drama and headaches stay away from this property and get another one. Will save you some headaches believe...

I was GRANDPAcking in Siquijor for 3 nights. I wanted to look around the island for somewhere to stay for another week.||I had read that the Palm Tree was clean and tidy and had cheap scooters for rent - so, I decided to base my first 3 days there.||On Google Maps, the Palm Tree looked like it was on a decent side road. It is not.||After walking the 400m up the main road to find the turn off, I found a gravel and dirt road that could not be traversed with a suitcase on wheels.||I had to carry my suitcase the 400-500m down the dirt track to my hotel.||This would NOT be possible for the normal GRANDPAckers (unless they only had backpacks – which I don’t recommend).||If you book the Palm Tree, I advise you to catch a Jeepney to Lerena and, then, a Tribike from there to the Palm Tree.||The Palm Tree was a discounted PHP795 / night for a small cottage.||There are only 3 cottages in the entire resort … it is very quiet.||The cottage came with a balcony, a small Double Bed, Fan, very small Cold Water Ensuite, and a wardrobe area (without a rail to hang your clothes on – so my clothes got hung on the curtain rail again).||The owners (a Dutch man and his Filipina wife) are very nice people and very attentive and friendly.||They cook but the menu is a bit ‘pricy’ with something like a Spicy Chicken Curry with Rice for PHP260 (I was paying PHP180 for the same thing at Shantal’s in Boracay).||But, having said that, their accommodation price is cheaper than most other places on the island - so what you save on accommodation goes towards the food bill.||The Palm Tree is not on the beachfront.||You have to walk 30m to the Casa De La Playa Resort to get through to the beach.||The beach is ‘OK’.||The Palm Tree advertise wifi in ‘common areas’ but their wifi is terrible to non-existent. You can’t rely on your own smartphone either … you either have ‘E’ for ‘Enough’ or no signal at all. If you are luck, you may get a wifi signal in the early morning before 7am.||If you need wifi, you need to go to the Casa De La Playa (which has good wifi). Not everyone needs wifi (but I do), so for many the lack of wifi won't...

The place is a bit hard to find and not easily accessible if simply commuting to and from. Unless you have a tricycle contact, it is virtually impossible to go out at any time of day. The beach is a few minutes away but the path going there is unclear. I suppose you can go through that popular resort leading to the beach front but I don't know if you have to pay an entrance fee. ||The room is very basic so don't expect anything more than what you paid for. The toilet is something I had issues with -- it was too small, shower not working well, drain partly clogged, etc. Overall all the cottages are showing signs of neglect and disrepair. ||Food is ok but not exceptional. The lady who cooks and cleans the house is really nice and has endless stories, even...