The Alpha Suites — Hotel in Makati

I've been hotel hopping in Makati during my 5 wk trip in the Philippines to find the best places to stay. Alpha Suites declares itself as a 5 star hotel, but in my honest opinion, it's more of 4 stars. The staff are all excellent, no complaints there. The front desk graciously allowed us to check in early, as I didn't remember the correct check-in time is 2pm. Everyone is always friendly, smiling & willing to go out of their way to help you. The location isn't w/in a comfortable walking distance to restaurants or shopping, so there isn't a shortage of amenities available, in house. There's a pharmacy, few stores (it's under construction) & budget friendly food options, all located in the Alphaland Makati Place, which is accessible via the ground floor, through an adjacent corridor (that passes by the hotel's office). Rustan's supermarket, on the lower level is SUPER convenient. Prices are very reasonable. I was happy to find their liquor section had ample choices. We also ended up cooking a few nights since their fresh foods are irresistible. It was a joy to cook in the kitchen as the electronics (especially the stove) are user friendly & kitchen tools-pot, pan, rice cooker, etc., basically everything you need, is at hand. The granite countertop is very pretty. I also noticed the lamps on the nightstands in the room had granite elements (fancy!). There is an in-unit washer/dryer, & that was one of the main reasons why I chose this property. Everything you need to feel at home is at your disposal. Appliances are Smeg & Electrolux. Air conditioners are LG inverter V models. These are considered high end in the US, where I'm from. The automatic retractable shades system, Blum soft close drawers, touch push cabinets mechanisms in the kitchen, drop down TV in the living room area, modern furniture & furnishings, cove lighting, etc., are all a nice touch. And when we didn't feel like cooking, (which was many times), there are 9 themed restaurants & bars on the 4th & 6th floors. We enjoyed the food at all of them, especially Balesin. The gym facilities are clean and modern. The pool area is impressive to look at. Everything in this hotel is clearly all high end. There was a LOT of money poured into this building. This is why I can't understand where this hotel failed. It's like encountering a beautifuI woman, but she has bad breath. I've stated the good & now I'll share why I don't feel this is a 5 star hotel. When we came in on the 1st day, there was a mildew scent that we noticed when we turned down the air conditioner since the initial temp was too cold for us. Also, when I opened the cabinet underneath the kitchen sink (to throw out my trash), there was a sewage stench that eminated so I told everyone not to open it. I also forgot to mention, that as gorgeous as the lobby is, there was a strong smell of sh*t, as soon as you walked in. I just attributed this to a fertilizer application for the greenery in front, but noticed the same smell the next 2 mornings when I went down. I should have taken this as an omen but I paid in advance for this room through Agoda (there are no refunds, so I will just stick it out & continue to update as to the reasons why this isn't a 4 star hotel) After the house keeping came in from the first time, the funky smells in our room were thankfully eliminated. The carpet in the bedrooms need to be ripped out. They are old, stained, stinky & I always made sure to wear slippers. The bathrooms were nice, but upon closer inspection, there is dust and cobwebs in crevices that are visible. The grout needs to be thoroughly cleaned, since mildew has taken residence & discolored it. When you shower, the drain isn't very good at collecting so over 1cm of water will pool at your feet. I have to wear H2O shoes bc I'm not confident about the cleanliness of the shower floor &especially since there's so much water at your feet while showering. If using the toilet, make sure there's at least 5 mins in between uses, as it takes rather long for the bowl to fill up. There are drain flies as another...

I was travelling around Asia for a few months and need a month to hunker down and get caught up on things. Kind of a staycation. I didn't want to spend a month in a hotel room and my experiences with Manila airbnbs could be called the revenge of the roaches. ||I got the one bedroom and it was very comfortable. The kitchen was very well equipped from the appliance perspective if lacking a bit in dishware and cutlery. I asked for a few more things and they were provided. As a few others noted the furnishings are worn and a bit dated, but I found them comfortable and fine. The one thing they should replace ASAP is the carpeting in the bedroom. It is gross (and I'm a guy who normally doesn't notice that kinda thing). Fortunately they provide slippers, I have never warn them in other hotels but wore them here. ||The staff was excellent with one exception. A maintenance man who kept repairing the AC in my living room, assuring me it was fixed only to have it break and him keep trying the same useless thing to repair it. I went through several cycles of that and finally I took the advise of the night manager (I wish I remembered her name she was delightful) and changed rooms. An unwanted hassle after changing hotel rooms every few days in Korea and Japan and after I had fully unpacked for the first time in over a month. But she did send the staff to test every system in the new room and assured me everything worked (and it did) and had the concierge move the contents of my newly and fully stocked refrigerator. ||My room was very quiet which is wonderful in noisy crowded Manila. This was the off season and I think I rarely had anyone in the room above me. One of 28 nights I heard someone clomping around up there late once, perhaps a late check-in. Internet was fast and I had no problem with all my streaming services or doing work. I wish they had blackout shades in the bedroom. Had I not come with a sleep mask, I wouldn't have slept past 5:30. The location is ok, you are on the edge of the high rise area of Makati. It is a 20 minute walk (or 4 dollar Grab) to or from to two nearest large malls. In the Manila summer there are few alternatives for comfortably stretching your legs. The gym and pool looked fantastic. I should have taken advantage of them both. There are lots of other facilities from a kickboxing studio, pool room, tennis and pickleball courts (I think all have a fee) but I was in lazy mode and didn't take advantage. I tried only one restaurant the Greek one and it was just ok. With a full kitchen I never felt the desire to sample the hotel breakfast. Grab food delivery was just too easy on days I didn't feel like cooking. The desk staff had everything I had delivered sent to my room. ||You are across from the main Makati police station and I felt very secure walking in the neighborhood day and night. There is a nice decently stocked grocery in the basement of the tower 1. Their rotisserie chicken and rice makes a nice $3 meal. Air Mall 1/2 block away has a few more options for restaurants. ||All in all I enjoyed my stay, appreciated the staff and would recommend and would stay here again. Fix just a few things and this would...

Staying at the hotel has always been a pleasant experience but if you are looking to book an event space from THE CITY CLUB, I urge you not to. It was our first and last time booking the Top of the Alpha. The entire process was long and tedious, even before confirming the booking for the event space, the staffs took very long to get back to us when we enquired, they did not get back to us until we showed up and asked for assistance at their counters (we enquired even before we took the flight into Manila). After the long and tiring process of trying to book the event space, we finally confirmed it. There were some minor issues with how they met with my requirements, we had opted for a DJ to spin specific music but during the event the DJ was not providing what was asked, but as I've mentioned it was a minor issue, it was sorted out very quickly. Just to give a little bit of background, we have ordered specific alcohols before the start of the event, have yet to make payment, but it was confirmed. Mixers for the alcohol and other miscellaneous items will be charged by how many bottles was used on the day of the event. As it was a business trip there were a lot of drinking, so by the end of the event almost everyone is drunk... but the staffs at The top of the Alpha kept rushing for payment although we have mentioned that we will make payment the next day when we are more sobered up, we were also staying at Alpha Suites Presidential Suite, there is only ONE Presidential Suite so there isn't any where we can run to. They were very persistent about payment so we made payment while drunk, little did we know we were overcharged.We spoke to the supervisor about this issue but just as before it was a long and tedious process, the supervisor could not answer our questions as to why we were overcharged. He then proceeded to get the manager to liaise with us, same thing, could not answer. Then the organizer (the person we liaised with to book the space) was called, she too could not answer. We were confident that we were overcharged as the items that we were overcharged with did not make sense, we asked them to check back the CCTV footage just to proof that we did use that specific item amounting to the ridiculous sum. They told us that they will do the check and get back to us, after a long wait they finally came back but with no updates regarding the CCTV footage. All the business partners were heated up as we all have a flight to catch later that day, because the team could not settle this issue for us, the Head of Manager was called, they were some disagreements yet again but she offered to refund 50% of what was overcharged. This entire experience was never about spending too much money, it is the fact that we felt scammed, because we were all intoxicated we wouldn't have known we were overcharged if we did not check the receipt the next day. After the Head of Manager has gotten our details for refund, we used the money to tip the concierge and bellboys as they really did deserve it. Thankfully we managed to catch our flight back as well.Hopefully this review will help some of you if you are looking to engage The City Club in the...